m^. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

BEQUEST  OF 

Alice  R.  Hilgard 


^ 


SPAIN  AND  THE  SPANIARDS. 


BY 


N.    L.   THIEBLIN. 


BOSTON : 

LEE    AND    SHEPARD,    PUBLISHERS. 

New   York: 

LEE,   SHEPARD    AND    DILLINGHAM. 

1875- 


GIFT  , 


i/-*^^ 


Stereotyped  at  the  Boston  Stereotype  Foundry, 
19  Spring  Lane. 


Ty3 


PUBLISHERS^  NOTE 


The  author  of  this  work,  Mr.  N.  L.  Thieblin,  now 
for  the  first  time  appearing  before  the  American 
public,  began  his  English  journalistic  career  in  Lon- 
don as  foreign  correspondent  of  the  Pall  Mall 
Gazette.  In  the  intervals  of  his  resrular  work  he 
wrote  some  humorous  sketches  for  the  same  journal, 
signing  them  with  the  Oriental  nom  de  plume  of 
Azamat-Batuk.  These  bright  contributions,  mainly- 
bearing  upon  the  manners  and  ways  of  the  English 
themselves,  secured  their  author  a  wide  reputation; 
and,  when  during  the  Franco-Prussian  war  he  joined 
the  French  army  as  special  correspondent  af  the 
same  paper,  his  letters  from  the  field  of  battle  were 
eagerly  looked  for  and  largely  quoted  even  in  this 
country. 

After  the  conclusion  of  that  war,  the  New  York 

ivi8584C5         3 


4  PUBLISHERS'  NOTE. 

Herald  engaged  Mr.  Thieblin  to  go  to  Spain,  and 
the  present  volume  is  the  result  of  his  sojourn  and 
travels  in  that  country.  The  author  has  thoroughly- 
revised  and  abridged  for  the  American  public  the 
original  London  edition  produced  in  April  last  by 
Messrs.  Hurst  &  Blackett,  in  two  volumes,  upon 
which  the  press  commented  in  the  most  flattering 
terms. 

Here  are  a  few  extracts  from  the  reviews  published 
by  the  leading  English  periodicals :  — 

"Here  is  at  last  a  book  on  Spain  of  the  kind  we 
have  been  asking  for.  Mr.  Thieblin  fills  his  pages 
with  his  personal  experiences  among  the  armed  fac- 
tions ;  he  takes  a  comprehensive  survey  of  the  present 
situation,  and  describes  the  men  who  have  made  them- 
selves most  conspicuous.  .  .  .  Mr.  Thieblin's  style  is 
not  only  easy,  but  graceful."  —  Saturday  Heview^ 
April  11,  1874. 

"Mr.  Thieblin's  grand  merit  is  that  he  takes  his 
reader  with  him.  Having  read  these  sketches,  we 
seem  to  realize  the  sensation  of  having  actually  plod- 
ded with  a  Carlist  column  through  the  arid  gorges 
of  Navarre,  or  looked  out  over  the  Plaza  in  Madrid 
while  a  revolution  was  going  on.     We  have  visited 


PUBLISHERS'  NOTE,  5 

Spain  in  Mr.  Thieblin's  company,  and  enjoyed  our 
visit  —  this  is  the  best  thing  we  can  say  of  the  book." 
—  Spectator^  July  11,  1874. 

"We  need  not  say  that  it  is  vivacious  and  inter- 
esting; nothing  that  is  dull  can  come  from  the 
author's  pen;  but  we  may  say  that  it  is  also  very 
informing.  Beneath  all  his  brilliancy  of  description, 
Mr.  Thieblin  is  careful  in  collecting  and  sifting  in- 
formation. He  is  indefatigable  in  pursuit  of  it.  Not 
only  is  this  the  most  graphic  book  about  Spain  of 
late  years  —  it  is  the  most  useful.  It  has  the  impor- 
tance of  history,  and  the  fascination  of  romance."  — 
British  Quarterly  Review^  for  July,  1874. 

"Mr.  Thieblin's  experiences  have  been  many  and 
varied,  and  they  have  supplied  him  with  a  consid- 
erable quantity  of  literary  stock,  which  he  has  from 
time  to  time  served  up  for  our  delectation  in  a  man- 
ner which  certainly  deserves  gratitude.  His  recipe 
is  a  good  one,  and  his  dishes  are  always  piquant; 
but,  perhaps,  he  has  never  been  more  successful 
than  in  his  latest  attempt.  The  volumes  before  us 
are  full  of  interest,  not  only  of  the  kind  which  is 
due  to  the  subject  of  which  they  treat,  but  also  of 
the  interest  which  arises  from  a  brisk  and  humorous 
style,  well  fitted  to  give  expression  to  the  author's 
acute  discernment  of  character  and  effect."  —  JExam- 
iner,  April  11,  1874. 


6  PUBLISHERS'   NOTE. 

"We  congratulate  Mr.  Thieblin  upon  the  appear- 
ance of  these  volumes  at  an  opportune  time.  By 
the  aid  of  this  really-entertaining  book  the  present 
state  of  Spain  may  be  easily  divined,  and  the  Cosas 
de  Espana  brought  before  the  mind's  eye."  —  Athe- 
nceum^  April  11,  1874. 

Not  less  flattering  reviews  were  published  at 
the  time  of  the  appearance  of  the  English  edition 
by  four  or  five  New  York  papers,  among  which  the 
usually  very  reserved  Nation,  of  July  2d,  said,  "  We 
know  of  no  book  that  so  well  represents  the  con- 
dition of  modern  Spain." 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

Bayonne  and  Biarritz,  where  Spain  begins 9 

CHAPTER  II. 
First  Visit  to  the  Carlist  Camps 30 

CHAPTER   HI. 
Dios,  Patria,  y  Key 62 

CHAPTER   IV. 

Don  Carlos,  his  Wife,  and  his  Views 88 

CHAPTER  V. 
From  Bayonne  to  Madrid 101 

CHAPTER  VI. 
The  Federalist  Coup  (I'Etat 117 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Countess  of  Montijo  on  Spanish  Mob-rule.    .   .    128 

CHAPTER  VIH. 

Federalist  Elections  and  Federalist  Festivities.  .   .   188 

7 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   IX. 
On  the  Top  op  the  Silver  Mountain 155 

CHAPTER  X. 
Santa  Ceuz , 172 

CHAPTER  XI. 
Campo  del  Honor 199 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Spanish  Clerical  Matters 260 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
Prim  and  Amadeo 280 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Alfonsism  versus  Carlism 299 

CHAPTER  XV. 
Spanish  Eepublicanism 316 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Castelar  and  Figueras. 342 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
Marshal  Serrano,  Duqce  de  la  Torre 359 

CHAPTER  XVIir. 
Adios! 365 


SPAIN  AND  THE  SPANIARDS. 

CHAPTER  1. 

BAYONNE    AND    BIARRITZ,   WHERE    SPAIN   BEGINS. 

1ET  US  start  a  la  Disraeli,  with  a  sentence  of  nice, 
^  impudent,  phrenetic  bluster,  something  like  this : 
"The  thunder  groaned,  the  wind  howled,  the  rain  fell 
in  hissing  torrents,  impenetrable  darkness  covered  the 
earth." 

Of  course,  in  March,  1873,  there  was  no  bona  fide 
thunder  to  be  got  in  London ;  but  that  does  not  mas- 
ter, since  everybody  knows  that  in  the  case  of  Ixion 
no  sort  of  thunder  groaned  either.  As  to  howling 
wind,  torrential  rain,  and  impenetrable  darkness,  there 
is  always  plenty  of  that  in  this  country.  So  the  open- 
ing sentence  will  do  very  well. 

Now,  just  fancy  a  man  sitting  in  London,  constantly 
chilly  in-doors,  thoroughly  wet  when  out  of  doors,  and 
with  nothins:  to  divert  him  from  the  consciousness  of 
his  utter  misery  except  the  prospect  of  reading  or  writ- 
ing no  end  of  newspaper  rubbish.  I  thought  the  posi- 
tion really  unbearable,  and  was  at  my  wit's  end  what 
to  do  with  myself,  when  again,  as  in  the  case  of  Ixion, 

9 


10  SPAIN  AND    THE  SPANIARDS. 

"  a  blue  and  forky  flash  darted  a  momentary  light  over 
the  landscape;"  or,  speaking  in  plainer  language,  a 
friend  knocked  at  my  door,  and  came  to  ask  whether 
I  should  like  to  go  to  Spain,  and  if  I  could  start  the 
next  day.  I  knew  Spain  already,  liked  it  immensely, 
not  to  say  loved  it,  and  seized  the  proposal  with  both 
hands* 

The  next  evening  at  8.45  I  was  off  to  Charing  Cross, 
and  within  less  than  three  days  found  myself  amidst 
a  blooming  vegetation,  and  under  a  bright  blue  sky, 
expanding  itself  over  the  favored  country  like  a  gigan- 
tic dome  of  lapis  lazuli.  And  I  felt  towards  London 
and  England,  as  we  all  often  feel  towards  good  old 
relations,  that  I  liked  them  all  the  better  at  a  certain 
distance. 

Is  there  any  need  to  describe  the  journey  to  the  foot 
of  the  Pyrenees?  The  night  I  left  London  was  one 
of  those  nice  British  nights  every  one  knows.  The 
Channel  was  perfectly  raging,  and  the  wind  so  violent 
ifs  to  tear  off  with  terrific  noise  the  roof  of  one  of  the 
railway  carriages,  and  to  cause  some  other  "  damage  to 
property."  At  Dover,  three  steamers  were  supposed 
to  start:  the  Belgian,  running  to  Ostend,  declined  to 
leave  before  daybreak ;  the  French  mail  steamer  refused 
to  go  at  all;  while  the  captain  of  the  "Maid  of  Kent" 
simply  advised  the  passengers  to  take  a  stiff  glass  of 
brandy  and  soda  to  begin  with,  and  then  another  to 
follow,  as  he  had  to  detain  them  a  little  on  account  of 

*  The  author  has  been  sent  out  to  Spain  on  behalf  of  the 
New  York  Herald,  as  the  special  correspondent  of  that  journal. 
The  pages  he  now  submits  to  the  public  contain  but  little  of 
what  has  been  already  published  in  the  Herald. 


B A  TONNE  AND  BIARRITZ,  \\ 

the  low  tide.  "  The  Calais  harbor  is  a  hell  of  a  place 
in  heavy  weather,"  we  were  informed,  "  and  more  sea 
was  required  to  land  in  anything  like  safety."  In  a 
few  hours  this  "more  sea"  turned  up,  and  all  those 
who  were  not  going  on  a  mere  pleasure  trip  were  on 
board.  We  remained  at  the  mercy  of  the  furious  ele- 
ment nearly  all  night,  were  all  the  time  mercilessly 
tossed  about,  but  still  reached  Calais  long  before  the 
captain  of  the  French  mail  had  made  up  his  mind  to 
leave  Dover  harbor. 

Of  course,  one  could  not  possibly  pass  Paris  without 
stopping  there  at  least  for  a  day.  A  few  hours  more 
must  also  be  spent  at  Bordeaux,  to  sip  with  a  friend 
a  bottle  of  the  sort  of  wine  which  never  reaches  Lon- 
don, and  only  after  that  can  one  conveniently  afford  to 
be  hurried  off  to  the  sad  and  disheartening  Landes. 
Should  you  ever  have  to  go  to  Bayonne,  take  my  ad- 
vice, don't  go  that  way  unless  you  are  in  a  great  hurry. 
Find  out  rather  some  steamer  at  Bordeaux,  for  there  is 
hardly  any  corner  in  France  which  leaves  a  more  pain-, 
ful  impression  than  the  Landes.  The  North  about 
Lille  and  the  Belgian  frontier  is  not  picturesque,  but 
at  all  events  you  see  a  sort  of  manufacturing  animation 
there ;  while  in  the  country  south  of  Bordeaux,  the  eye 
meets  nothing  but  pine  forests,  patches  of  sand,  and 
grayish -looking  fields,  sometimes  without  a  trace  of 
any  other  vegetation  than  fern.  Miles  and  miles  are 
passed  without  the  sight  of  a  hill  or  a  living  being, 
except  an  occasional  cow  ringing  her  melancholy  bell, 
or  a  grunting  pig  rushing  out  of  a  ditch  on  the  ap- 
proach of  the  train.  Now  and  then  you  come  across 
a  lot  of  horses  let  loose  j  their  shaggy  coat,  their  awk- 


12  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

ward,  shy  sort  of  look,  make  you  forget  that  you  are 
south  of  the  French  vineyards  —  you  believe  yourself  in 
the  steppes  of  Kussia.  Of  human  beings,  you  see  liter- 
ally nothing,  except  when  the  train  stops  at  the  station ; 
and  only  by  and  by,  when  vaguely  discerning  on  the 
distant  horizon  the  blue  clouded  chain  of  the  Pyrenees, 
do  you  feel  relieved  from  the  seediness  that  oppressed 
you,  and  begin  to  believe  that  you  will  really  have 
something  better  to  see  presently. 

The  fresh  smiling  vales  and  hills  around  Bordeaux, 
the  sprightly,  enervating  activity  of  the  city  itself,  make 
you  feel  the  sadness  of  the  Landes  still  stronger ;  and 
w^hen  you  reach  Bayonne,  you  wonder  by  what  sort 
of  misunderstanding  or  forgetfulness,  Nature  allowed 
the  large  plot  of  land  between  the  Gironde  and  the 
Adour  to  remain  in  that  rough  and  unfinished  con- 
dition. 

Bayonne  gains  immensely  if  you  enter  it  by  the 
river.  The  bar  of  the  Adour  is  in  itself  quite  a  sight 
for  the  stranger.  First  of  all,  it  cannot  be  always 
passed ;  and  that  is  already  something.  Very  fre- 
quently ships  have  to  remain  several  days  outside, 
waiting  till  a  favorable  tide  turns  up.  The  sea  may 
be  like  a  mirror,  but  on  the  bar  itself  there  is  always 
a  havoc ;  while,  when  the  sea  is  rough,  the  mouth  of 
the  Adour  assumes  the  aspect  of  some  infernal  caldron. 
A  man  fresh  to  the  sea  would  never  believe  any  ves- 
sel could  pass  through  it.  The  white  boiling  waves 
dash  up  high  in  the  air,  with  all  the  rage  and  cries  of 
a  thousand  infuriated  witches.  Caught  by  one  of  these 
waves,  the  ship  is  immediately  pitched  up  and  down 
in  such  a  way  that  no  efforts  will  make  anybody  or 


BAYONNE  ANX>  BIARRITZ.  13 

anything  on  board  remain  in  its  place.  Every  fresh 
wave  coming  from  behind  looks  as  if  it  would  wash 
off  funnel,  paddle-boxes,  and  everything  else  ;  yet  the 
steamer  bounds  up  again,  and  in  three  or  four  minutes 
slips  quietly  down  on  the  smooth  surface  of  the  river. 
But  one  can  only  get  a  chance  to  enjoy  this  sight  when 
the  naval  bulletins,  posted  on  the  wall  of  the  Custom 
House  at  Bayonne,  announce,  "Passage  de  la  barre 
praticable."  When  they  declare  it  "  diificile,"  nobody 
makes  even  an  attempt  to  enter  the  river,  or  to  leave 
it;  and  it  is  quite  a  common  thing  to  see  English  and 
Spanish  crews  knocking  about  at  Bayonne,  sometimes 
for  a  week,  without  being  able  to  get  out  into  the  gulf. 
In  the  spring  of  1873,  when  the  general  flight  from 
Madrid  had  set  in,  and  the  Northern  Railway  was  cut, 
there  remained  no  other  road  to  France  but  that  via 
Santander  or  Bilbao,  and  thence  on  by  steamer  to 
Bayonne.  How  many  senoras  had  then  to  faint  and 
cry  on  the  mere  approach  of  that  bar!  But  the  Adour 
speedily  recomforted  them.  The  large  and  handsome 
river,  with  its  rich  vegetation  on  either  side,  reminded 
them  of  their  own  Rio  Nervion  and  the  entrance  to 
the  capital  o'f  Biscaya.  The  sight  here  is  even  much 
more  grand,  for,  though  English  mining  industry  and 
commercial  activity  have  rendered  the  approaches  to 
Bilbao  much  more  animated,  the  approaches  to  Bayonne 
are  more  picturesque,  the  river  is  larger,  and  the  groves 
and  woods  bordering  it  are  incomparably  more  beauti- 
ful and  profuse. 

It  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  Spain  begins  at 
Bayonne  and  Biarritz.     It  is  here  that  you  first  see 


14  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

mantillas  going  to  church ;  that  you  read  sign-boards 
written  in  French  and  Spanish;  that  you  hear  the 
Castilian  tongue  —  and  often  the  purest.  During  the 
summer  months  you  meet  certainly  more  Spanish  than 
French  faces  at  Bayonne ;  and  in  the  Allees  Marines^ 
the  beautiful  promenade  along  the  river,  you  are  first 
puzzled  by  the  bullocks  dragging  the  carts,  being 
dressed  in  a  kind  of  linen  dressing-gowns,  and  having 
elaborate  red  nets  on  their  heads.  Lifting  up  their 
wet  nostrils,  they  look  at  you  as  if  anxious  to  ascer- 
tain whether  you  are  not  disposed  to  take  them  across 
to  the  country  where  their  race  has  a  so  much  more 
glorious  and  so  much  less  laborious  life.  In  the 
market-place  and  in  the  leading  street  you  meet  very 
frequently  mules  with  their  heavily-loaded  alforjas ; 
and  the  genuine  muleteers,  dressed  in  their  picturesque 
costumes,  leave  you  in  no  doubt  of  your  being  in  close 
vicinity  to  the  land  of  Don  Quixote.  The  huge  build- 
ing which  lodges  the  municipal  council,  the  Mairie, 
the  theatre,  the  custom  house,  and  a  good  many  other 
things,  has  large  arcades  through  the  basement,  quite 
in  the  Spanish  style,  and  one  of  the  streets  of  Bayonne 
consists  almost  entirely  of  arcades. 

On  the  whole,  Bayonne  would  be  a  pleasant-looking 
town  if  it  were  not  for  a  very  mournful,  since  immem- 
orable  times,  unfinished  cathedral,  and  some  very  ugly- 
looking  old  fortifications.  The  Yauban  bastions  outside 
the  town,  being  covered  with  grass,  do  not  much  ofiend 
the  eye,  but  the  old  castle  and  the  citadel  have  a  ruined 
and  mouldy  look  which  afiects  the  aspect  of  the  town 
very  unfavorably.  Being  a  place  forte  de  premiere 
dassej  Bayonne  garrisons   a  whole   military  division 


BAYONNE  AND  BIARRITZ.  15 

and  no  end  of  siege  and  fortress  artillery  —  a  circum- 
stance which  also  adds  very  little  to  the  pleasantness 
of  the  town,  except  through  the  supply  of  some  mili- 
tary bands,  which  play  twice  a  week 'during  the  after- 
noon on  the  Place  d''Armes,  and  assemble  in  that  way 
the  fashionable  belles  of  Biarritz  as  well  as  the  indige- 
nous Basquese  girls.  The  former  come  to  make  a  show 
of  their  toilets  in  all  imaginable  carriages  and  pony 
chaises,  while  the  latter  walk  quaintly  about,  to  let 
people  have  a  look  at  their  graceful  bearing,  and  at 
their  plain  but  coquettish  head-gear. 

What  is  here  to  be  seen  of  England  is  most  vener- 
able, and  to  a  certain  extent  even  glorious.  In  the 
first  place  there  is  a  vast  number  of  invalid  and  elderly 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  naturally  suggesting  the  idea  of 
usefully-spent  lives,  of  overwork,  of  large  fortunes 
made  by  business-like  habits  and  all  that  sort  of  thing. 
Then  there  is  the  English  cemetery,  which  contains 
the  bodies  of  the  oflScers  and  soldiers  of  the  2d  Life 
Guards,  who  fell  under  the  walls  of  Bayonne  in  1814. 
Then  again  there  is  the  little  frontier  town  of  Hendaye 
within  a  few  miles  of  Bayonne  —  a  town  which  was 
intimately  connected  with  Great  Britain  through  the 
strong  brandy  it  produced.  Opposite  that  place,  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Bidassoa,  lies  the  old  picturesque 
Spanish  town  of  Fuentaiabia,  close  to  which  the  Duke 
of  Wellington  crossed  the  fords,  and  surprised  and 
defeated  Marshal  Soult.  In  a  word,  wherever  one 
looks,  one  finds  something  to  remind  one  of  "dear 
Old  England."  Almost  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
Departement  des  Basses-Pyrenees  one  finds  a  number 
of  English  families  of  limited  means,  who  look  pretty 


16  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

much  as  if  they  had  settled  down  there,  and  some  of 
them,  at  Biarritz,  even  do  a  bit  of  business  in  addition 
to  their  living  pleasantly,  cheapl}-,  and  in  a  good  cli- 
mate. They  takfe  a  house  by  the  year,  sublet  it  during 
the  three  months'  season  for  the  same  rent  they  have 
to  pay  for  twelve  months,  and  retire  meanwhile  to 
places  like  Ascain,  Behobie,  or  Cambo,  where  provis- 
ions are  at  half  the  Biarritz  season  prices ;  while  the 
loveliest  walks,  excellent  fishing,  and  occasionally  a 
good  day's  shooting,  can  be  had  for  nothing. 


Bayonne  was  always  the  great  Carlist  centre,  but 
during  these  last  years  it  has  become  so  more  than 
ever.  Under  the  government  of  M.  Thiers  everything 
was  done,  if  not  to  prevent,  at  all  events  to  render  the 
Carlist  movement  more  difficult.  The  gendarmerie 
was  re-enforced  by  some  men  specially  sent  from  Ver- 
sailles. Troops  were  echelonned  all  along  the  frontier, 
and  the  greatest  watchfulness  seemed  to  be  exercised  in 
Bayonne  itself.  Spaniards  who  were  unable  to  prove 
their  being  leading  members  of  the  Alfonso  or  Isabella 
party  were,  without  distinction  of  either  sex  or  age, 
arrested  and  interned  by  the  dozen.  All  this,  however, 
did  not  much  affect  Carlism,  for  its  chief  support  in 
the  Basses  Pyrenees  comes  not  from  the  Spaniards,  but 
from  the  French  landed  proprietors,  who,  in  that  prov- 
ince, are  nearly  all  legitimists,  and  from  the  mass  of 
the  population,  who  make  a  good  deal  of  money  out 
of  Carlism  in  every  possible  way:  by  smuggling  arras 
across  the  frontier,  by  the  supply  of  horses,  uniforms, 


BAYONNE  AND  BIARRITZ,  17 

and  other  war  requisites,  as  well  as  through  the  general 
affluence  of  i:>eople  this  side  of  the  Pyrenean  frontier  — 
an  inevitable  result  of  all  Carlist  risings  on  the  other 
side  of  it.  M.  Thiers  was  too  cautious  to  provoke  any 
strong  feeling  against  himself  on  the  part  of  the  Frenph 
Basques,  and  still  more  so  on  the  part  of  the  rich  no- 
bility of  the  Province ;  but  he  did  all  he  could  in  an 
underhand  manner.  Yet  his  best  efforts  proved  a 
failure.  He  was  legally  unable  either  to  arrest  or  to 
interne  the  wealthy  southern  landlords,  nor  could  he 
invade  their  houses  for  the  purpose  of  searching  them. 
Consequently,  though  strangers  of  all  nations  were 
greatly  molested  by  the  gendarmes  and  the  police,  in 
the  streets,  on  the  high  roads,  and  in  the  hotels,  Carlism 
progressed  all  the  same,  for  it  was  carried  on  much  more 
within  the  quiet  residences  of  the  landed  nobility  and 
gentry  than  anywhere  else.  Even  the  much  perse- 
cuted Spaniards  managecl,  somehow  or  other,  to  estab- 
lish a  regular  committee,  which  styled  itself  "  La  Real 
Junta  Auxiliar  de  la  Frontera,"  delivered  passes,  con- 
cluded contracts,  etc.,  and  was  holding  its  sittings  in  a 
Spanish  hotel  in  the  principal  street  of  Bayonne.  An- 
other committee,  consisting  of  Frenchmen,  concealed 
its  occupation  still  less  than  the  Spaniards  did. 

When  arrived  at  Bayonne,  I  was  soon  brought  into 
contact  with  some  of  the  leading  representatives  of 
these  committees,  and,  as  my  duties  implied,  tried  to 
ascertain  in  what  way  the  Carlists  had  managed  to 
organize  themselves,  and  where  they  got  money  and 
arms  from.  I  knew  that  there  had  been  a  committee 
in  London,  and  another  in  Paris;  but  the  London 
committee  did  not  send  out  any  money  at  all,  while 
2 


18  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

the  Paris  Committee  collected  only  a  little  over  five 
thousand  dollars,  which  could  not  go  a  long  way. 
From  all  that  I  have  learned  subsequently,  it  appears 
that  the  present  Cnrlist  movement  began  with  about 
twenty  thousand  dollars,  which  Don  Carlos's  uncle,  the 
Duke  of  Modena,  supplied  to  the  young  pretender. 
If,  at  the  outset,  the  nobility  and  the  population  of 
the  south  of  France  had  not  assisted  Don  Carlos  as 
they  did,  l>e  would  not  have  had  any  chance  at  al3  of 
aniving  where  he  now  is.  A  few  instances  will  show  by 
what  practical  contrivances  they  managed  to  help  him. 
Some  three  thousand  uniforms  of  the  Mobiles  —  a 
souvenir  of  the  Franco-German  war  —  were  (for  ex- 
ample) to  be  sold  at  Bordeaux,  and  at  once  a  gentle- 
man was  instructed  to  buy  them ;  while  a  couple  of 
landed  proprietors  of  Bayonne  stored  them  until  a 
party  of  reliable  contrabandists  could  be  secured  to 
smuggle  the  stock  across  the  frontier.  In  a  few  weeks, 
six  or  seven  battalions  of  the  Carlist  army  did  not, 
except  through  their  Bo'ina  (Basque  cap),  differ  in  any 
way,  in  their  outward  appearance,  from  the  inohlots 
the  Prussians  used  to  capture  and  slaughter  so  freely. 
Another  similar  affair  took  place  at  Bayonne  itself. 
The  municipality  possessed  there  another  souvenir  of 
the  last  war,  in  the  shape  of  a  stock  of  some  ten  thou- 
sand cartridge-pouches  and  sword-belts.  One  of  the 
councillors,  a  gentleman  of  a  Carlist  turn  of  mind, 
suggested  that  time  had  arrived  to  realize  the  public 
money  so  unprofitably  invested,  and  proposed  that  the 
stock  should  be  sold  by  auction  ;  but  another  member, 
of  a  more  Republican  shade,  opposed  the  motion  as 
likely  to  serve  the  insurgents  of  a  country  which  was 


BATONNE  AND  BIARRITZ,  19 

on  friendly  terras  with  France.  A  rather  sharp  dis- 
cussion ensued,  without  apparently  leading  to  any 
result.  But  the  Carlists  found  out  a  leather  merchant 
from  so  distant  a  province  as  Burgundy,  caused  him  to 
write  and  make  a  j)rivate  offer  to  the  municipality,  and 
the  whole  stock  was  sold  for  about  a  franc  per  com- 
plete accoutrement.  As  a  matter  of  course,  neither 
the  pouches  nor  the  belts  went  to  Burgundy,  but  were 
sent  directly  to  Navarre,  Guipuzcoa,  and  Biscaya,  where 
.they  have  been  doing  some  capital  service  up  to  the 
present  day.  Perhaps  a  still  better  illustration  of  the 
manner  in  which  Don  Carlos  was  served  by  his  foith- 
ful  and  ingenious  allies,  is  furnished  by  the  supply  of 
two  cannons  which  I  happened  to  see  myself  first 
stored  in  a  little  chateau  near  Biarritz,  and  subse- 
quently in  full  operation  on  the  Carlist  battle-fields.  I 
shall  have  even  to  tell,  by  and  by,  how  I  was  compelled 
to  smuggle  one  of  these  cannons.  At  present,  how- 
ever, it  will  be  enough  to  say  that  two  brass  four- 
pounders,  cast  at  a  foundery  near  Nantes,  were,  it  seems, 
declared  to  be  defective  on  inspection,  and  doomed  to 
be  turned  into  metal  again.  01*  course  that  was  but  a 
manoeuvre  for  getting  them  out  of  the  French  govern- 
ment's hands.  In  a  few  days  they  were  packed,  and  a 
French  priest  booked  them  at  the  railway-station  to 
some  village  close  by  Bayonne,  as  marble  statues  of  a 
Virgin  and  some  saint  for  his  church.  He  travelled  all 
the  way  himself  with  the  awkward  luggage,  and  recom- 
mended every  railway  guard  to  be  most  careful  in  deal- 
ing with  his  cases,  containing,  according  to  his  story, 
very  fine  works  of  art. 

In  this  and  similar  ways  the  whole  of  the  existing 


20  SPAIN  AND  THE  SPANIARDS. 

Carlist  army  was  organized  at  the  outset,  and  what  we 
have  since  heard  of  the  Deerhound's  and  other  large 
landings  of  arms,  began  only  when  Don  Carlos  became 
sufficiently  master  of  the  North  of  Spain  to  impose 
contributions  and  to  raise  little  local  so-called  loans, 
which  enabled  him  to  send  out  money  to  England  in 
larger  quantities  than  he  had  had  at  his  disposal  before. 
During  the  last  two  years,  the  department  of  the 
Basses  Pyrenees  turned  more  Spanish  thnn  ever,  for  in 
addition  to  swarms  of  Carlists,  and  to  all  those  Spanish 
families  who  came  every  year  on  pleasure  trips  to  the 
Pyrenees,  everybody  whose  financial  position  permitted 
an  escape  from  places  where  there  were  disturbances  — 
and  disturbances  were  everywhere  in  that  sad  country 
—  sought  refuge  on  the  French  coast  of  the  Gulf  of 
Biscaya.  Consequently,  every  place,  down  to  the 
smallest  village  on  that  coast,  was  literally  crammed 
with  genuine  blue-blooded  caballeros  and  senoras. 
Now  it  was  only  natural  that  in  so  large  a  number  of 
representatives  of  one  country  there  should  be  all 
imaginable  varieties,  genera,  and  species:  Carlists, 
Alfonsists,  Isabellists,  Amadeists,  Serranists,  Esparte- 
rists,  Cabrerists,  and  no  end  of  other  "ists,"  all  con- 
spiring, all  gesticulating,  all  talking  at  the  same  time, 
though  somewhat  different  nonsense;  but  almost  all 
charming  men,  accompanied  very  often  by  still  more 
charming  women. 


Biarritz,  the  fashionable  Imperialist  watering-place, 
diffei's  greatly  from  anything  that  the  traveller  meets 
on  his  approaching   the  Spanish  frontier.     The  little 


BATONNE  AND  BIARRITZ.  21 

town,  or  more  correctly  the  little  village,  is  built  on  an 
exceedingly  ugly  spot,  almost  without  any  vestige  of 
gardens  or  shady  grove.  It  is  evidently  a  place 
predestined  to  serve  as  a  resort  for  people  rather  fonder 
of  parasols  than  of  leafy  canopies.  The  houses  are 
small  and  irregularly-shaped,  without  any  reference 
either  to  the  comfortable  or  the  picturesque ;  and  the 
few  large  mansions  which  have  been  erected  by  Napo- 
leon and  some  of  his  counsellors  and  friends  are  cal- 
culated only  to  exhibit  still  more  strongly  the  general 
ugliness  of  the  place.  The  largest  building  in  that 
way,  the  Yilla  Eugenie,  looks  more  like  a  reformatory 
or  some  cavalry  barracks  than  like  a  villa.  One 
wonders  now  what  could  have  ever  induced  the  late 
Emperor  to  select  this  spot  for  'embellishment,  except 
that  it  was  near  Spain  —  which  he  had  all  reasons  for 
disliking  —  and  that  it  offered  excellent  sea-bathing, 
which  he  seldom,  if  ever,  indulged  in.  Sitting  on  the 
shore,  and  looking  at  w^hat  Napoleon  contrived  to  call 
into  existence  at  Biarritz,  one  feels  more  than  ever 
inclined  to  give  a  sad  smile  at  the  memory  of  the 
Empire.  What  a  vast  amount  of  money  spent  to 
create  a  summer  residence  for  the  Empress  "  when  she 
becomes  a  widow  "  (and  not  able  to  live  in  France)  ! 
What  an  amount  of  artifice  conceived  in  preparing 
friendly  arm-in-arm  walks  with  Bismarck,  during  which, 
under  the  softeninoj  influence  of  the  blue  sea  and  the 
blue  mountains,  the  fate  of  Europe  was  supposed  to  be 
decided,  though  in  reality  nothing  was  decided,  except 
the  catastrophe  to  the  creator  of  Biarritz  and  to  the 
nation  which  paid  for  this  creation  ! 

All  this,  however,  does  not  prevent  Biarritz  from 


22  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

being  an  excellent  place  to  take  a  sea-bath,  for  the  two 
establishments  offer  every  comfort  in  that  way,  and 
the  beach  in  front  of  the  Casino  is  of  a  description 
which  can  hardly  be  found  anywhere  else,  the  bottom 
of  the  sea  being  as  smooth  as  the  best  polished  marble, 
and  the  rollers  all  that  can  be  wished  for.  The  coast 
itself  is  also  capable  of  affording  no  end  of  enjoyment 
to  people  endowed  with  a  little  taste  for  the  picturesque. 
Seldom  do  you  find  a  place  where,  within  the  same 
limited  space,  the  waves  break  in  so  great  variety  of 
beautiful  modes.  On  one  spot  you  see  them  rolling 
softly,  harmoniously,  as  though  kissing  the  shore,  and 
whispering  to  it  sweet  words  of  love ;  while  close  by,  they 
dash  furiously,  like  so  many  gigantic,  white-robed,  mad 
women.  Here  they  break  abruptly  against  a  cllft^  and 
are  thrown  back  in  silver  spray ;  there  they  quietly  spread 
themselves  in  a  rich  carpet,  whiter  than  snow  itself. 

The  Spanish  coast  is  seen  from  Biarritz  to  the  best 
advantage,  the  sharp  lines  of  the  mountains  being  all 
softened  down,  and  the  perpetual  play  of  light  and 
shade,  and  the  variety  of  color,  giving  the  whole  picture 
quite  a  fairy  touch.  If  Biarritz  had  not  been  trans- 
formed into  a  country  branch  of  "the  vast  cafe-restau- 
rant called  Paris,"  it  would  certainly  have  soon  become 
a  favorite  resort  of  true  lovers  of  good  bathing  and  fine 
sea-side  views.  But  it  is  a  place  at  which  you  should 
never  avert  your  eye  from  the  sea.  As  soon  as  you 
cast  your  glance  across  the  landscape,  you  are  at  once 
oppressed  with  the  utter  dreariness  of  the  scene ;  the 
town  itself  is  unbearable,  and  the  neighboring  country 
as  near  an  approacih  to  the  Landes  as  can  be  found  in  the 
whole  of  that  otherwise  picturesque  corner  of  France. 


BATONNE  AND  BIARRITZ.  23 

The  yearly  invasion  of  distinguished  foreigners  and 
of  Paris  fashionables  has  also  given  quite  a  peculiar 
character  to  the  population  of  Biarritz.  Men  and 
beasts,  women  and  children,  seem  all  to  look  different 
from  what  they  are  in  other  parts  of  the  Basses  Pyre- 
nees. The  national  Basque  costume  is  almost  given 
up,  as  is  also  the  Basque  language.  The  muleteer, 
though  a  thorough  Spaniard,  does  not  look  any  longer 
a  genuine  one,  for  he  is  mixed  up  here  with  sham  Turks, 
sham  Arabs,  and  sham  everything  else,  as  if  it  were  in  a 
masquerade.  Instead  of  working  all  the  year  round,  the 
population  works  only  three  months,  the  main  feature 
of  their  work  being  that  of  cheating  everybody  in 
eveiy  way,  and  to  an  extent  which  secures  them  a 
most  comfortable  livelihood  during  the  remaining  nine 
months.  As  long  as  the  Empire  lasted,  there  was  at 
least  the  guarantee  of  fashionable,  if  not  always  re- 
spectable, society  offered  to  the  rich  traveller  by  the 
excessive  prices  of  living ;  while  at  present  even  this 
advantage  is  gone,  and  the  Casino  of  Biarritz,  in  which 
baccarat  is  now  carried  on  all  the  year  round,  will 
probably  soon  transform  Biarritz  into  about  the  worst 
place  of  that  sort  in  the  whole  of  Europe. 


To  the  student  of  men  and  manners,  St.-Jean-de- 
Luz  is  the  place  which  offers  most  attractions  in  this 
neighborhood,  for,  although  there  still  exists  a  large 
number  of  Basque  villages  in  France,  there  is  no  really 
Basque  town  except  St.-Jean-de-Luz.  Everything  is 
here  as  of  old,  the  piety^,  the  virtue  of  the  peojjle,  their 


24  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

quaint  sharpness,  their  tongue,  their  costume,  the  agility 
of  their  movements,  down  even  to  their  bhie  berets  and 
white  alpargatas  (hempen  sandals),  and  to  the  unbeara- 
ble cries  of  their  female  street-hawkers.  You  feel  at 
once  you  are  far  from  the  northern  regions,  where  a  man 
has  to  think  of  his  dear  fuel,  his  dear  provisions,  and 
the  high  rent  he  pays  for  his  shelter.  Of  fuel  the 
Basque  requires  next  to  none  ;  the  food  is  cheap,  and 
he  means  it  to  be  good  too  ;  as  to  the  shelter,  although 
he  has  always  a  good  one,  he  does  not  concern  himself 
much  about  it,  as  his  whole  life  is  passed  outside  the 
house,  in  the  street,  the  field,  and  on  the  high  road. 
His  ancestors,  who  were  always  fighting,  but  never 
conquered,  had  all  been  ennobled  by  the  princes  to 
whom  they  swore  allegiance,  and  the  Basque  has  con- 
sequently up  to  our  times  preserved  a  kind  of  pride 
which  gives  boldness  to  his  look,  and  makes  him  talk 
to  you  on  terms  of  perfect  equality.  And  in  the 
majority  of  cases  it  is  perfectly  immateiial  to  him  what 
tongue  he  talks  —  Basque,  Spanish,  or  French;  he 
knows  them  all  equally  well,  though  he  immensely 
prefers  his  harsh-sounding  native  language.  At  the 
first  glance  you  throw  at  the  Basque  peasant,  yoii  per- 
ceive by  his  quick  and  agile  walk,  his  cleanly  cotton 
costume,  and  his  loud,  harsh  voice,  that  the  man  has 
not  crept  out  of  some  black  underground  hole.  The 
brownish,  hard  features  of  his  face,  quite  open  under 
the  beret,  tell  of  a  life  passed  under  cheerful  sun  rays  ; 
and  the  bright  though  somewhat  dreamy  expression 
of  his  eyes  seems  to  be  full  of  praise  of  the  beauties  of 
the  sea  and  mountain  scenery,  which  they  have  ever 
contemplated.     You  cannot  intimidate  a  man  of  this 


BATONNE  AND  BIARRITZ.  25 

sort,  for  neither  the  majesty  of  the  nature  surrounding 
him,  nor  the  violence  of  the  enemy,  has  ever  done  so 
for  centuries  and  centuries  past.  He  is  all  blood  and 
passion ;  and  if  you  offend  him,  he  dashes  at  you,  how- 
ever mighty  or  powerful  you  may  be.  When  the 
Basque  left  his  native  place  at  the  foot  of  the  moun- 
tains and  went  to  mix  with  the  population  north  and 
east  of  him,  he  lost  by  and  by  his  national  character, 
and  in  the  Beam  and  in  the  Landes  you  meet  beggars 
on  every  step,  while  you  find  none  in  the  so-called 
Labourd  and  the  Soule.  However  dull  St.-Jean-de-Luz 
may  seem  to  a  stranger,  the  Basque  won't  give  it  up  on 
any  consideration.  The  usurping  sea  tried  to  get  it 
from  him,  and  was  actually  swallowing  up  the  town, 
but  —  a  Gascon  Gascon  et  demi  —  the  Basques  stopped 
it,  and  are  now  managing  to  raise  their  decaying  capital 
to  its  former  state  of  prosperity. 

The  Basque  likes  even  the  gypsies  he  has  so  long 
harbored  at  considerable  danger  to  himself,  for  it  is 
probably  thanks  to  gypsies  that  the  inhabitants  of  St.- 
Jean-de-Luz  w^ere  formerly  accused  of  witchcraft  and 
burned  alive  en  masse.  He  made  even  these  gypsies 
work  as  steadily  as  he  does  himself;  at  least  if  the 
male  gypsies  do  not  still  work  much,  the  female  do. 
Known  under  the  name  of  cascaroUes^  they  are  all 
engaged  in  the  fish  trade,  and  from  six  o'clock  in  the 
morning  the  whole  town  is  resounding  with  the  pier- 
cing, unbearable  cries  of  "  Sardmas  !  Sardi-i-nas  !  " 
Formerly,  when  the  railway  from  Bayonne  was  not 
completed,  the  most  valiant  cascarottes  used  to  start  at 
five  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  Bayonne,  some  thirteen 
miles  distant,  and  returning  by  noon  were  off  again  at 


26  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

two  P.  M.,  and  back  at  sunset,  running  thus  —  for  they 
never  walk,  they  trot — barefooted,  something  over 
fifty  miles  a  day ;  and  in  the  evening,  after  the  com- 
pletion of  their  laborious  task,  they  were  dancing  on 
the  beach  of  St.-Jean. 

This  dancing  is  another  quite  original  aifair  here. 
The  cascarottes  dance  almost  the  ^^vhq  fandango  as  the 
Basques,  but  they  dance  it  without  music,  to  the  sing- 
ing and  the  clapping  of  hands  of  the  spectators.  The 
more  regular  lL^?^^Q[\\Q  fandango  can,  however,  be  al- 
ways seen  on  Sundays,  either  at 'the  special  squares 
arranged  in  every  village  for  the  pelota  {jeu  de paume), 
or  at  St.-Jean,  in  front  of  the  bathing  establishment. 
The  orchestra  consists,  as  a  rule,  of  a  bad  violin  and 
still  worse  liorn.  Two  big  empty  casks  with  two  planks 
on  them,  two  old  chaiis  on  these  planks,  and  two  bad 
musicians  upon  the  chairs,  are  deemed  sufficient  to 
enliven  the  dance.  The  sounds  they  get  out  of  their 
instruments  are  something  horrible ;  nevertheless,  you 
can  sit  for  hours  looking  at  the  graceful  movements  of 
both  men  and  women.  Perpetual  wars  have  developed 
in  the  Basque  a  taste  for  bodily  exercise,  and  bodily 
exercise  has  produced  agility  and  gracefulness.  Every 
one  knows  what  fierce  and  invincible  finjhtinor  material 
was  at  all  times  found  in  these  more  or  less  direct 
descendants  of  the  Iberian  tribes  which,  as  traditions 
report,  used,  when  besieged  and  reduced  to  the  extremi- 
ty of  hunger,  to  eat  their  wives  and  children,  salting 
such  parts  of  the  flesh  as  they  could  not  consume  in  a 
fresh  condition.  The  Roman  soldiers  who  went  out 
to  fight  the  Vascons  were  sure  never  to  return  ;  and 
the  Moors,  after  having  conquered  the  whole  of  the 


B A  TONNE  AND  BTARRITZ.  27 

Peninsulff,  could  never  enter  the  so-called  Basque 
provinces  of  Spain,  the  population  of  which  is  absolutely 
the  same  as  on  this  side  of  the  Pyrenees.  The  only 
difference  between  the  French  and  the  Spanish  Basques 
is,  that  the  former  looks  much  more  civilized,  much 
more  tamed  down  —  a  circumstance  which  may  be,  per- 
haps, accounted  for  on  the  principle  of  that  process  to 
which  M.  Michelet  alludes,  when  he  says  that  the 
people  of  France  are  a  nation  of  barbarians  civilized 
by  conscription.  The  Spanish  Basque,  who  never 
knew  whjit  conscription  was,  and  always  fought  for  his 
privilege  of  not  being  compelled  to  fight,  remains  in  a 
state  of  cHjmparative  savagery  when  put  into  juxtapo- 
sition with  the  peasant  from  the  Basses  Pyrenees.  Yet, 
if  the  improved  Vascon  has  all  the  merits  which  can 
be  wished  for  in  a  citizen  of  an  orderly  community  ;  if 
he  is  steady,  hard-working,  and  intelligent ;  if  his 
religious  and  moral  character  is  irreproachable,  —  woe, 
nevertheless,  to  those  who  are  dependent  upon  him ; 
he  will  suck  the  last  drop  of  blood  X)ut  of  them ;  and 
there  is  no  greater  misery  to  be  seen  in  France  than 
where  the  small  Basque  capitalist  comes  into  contact 
with  the  laborer  of  a  neighboring  and  poorer  county. 

Yet  the  Basque  is  good-natured,  kind,  and  rather 
poetical  in  his  aspirations.  The  Basque  literature, 
which  is  almost  all  manuscript,  or  even  oral,  as  preserved 
in  the  national  ballads,  is  said  to  be  rich,  and  to  have 
many  charms  in  its  way.  1  give  here  a  verse  of  a 
popular  song,  which  may  at  least  shov/  how  the  lan- 
guage looks  in  print,  and  a  Fjench  translation  to  it, 
boriowed  from  a  local  writer,  as  I  have  never  been 
able  to  catch,  myself;  a  single  word  of  Basque  except 
"  Urrc,"  or  "  Urra,"  which  means,  I  think,  water. 


28  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

Tchorrittona,  nourat  houa,  * 

Bi  hegalez,  airian? 
Espagnalat  jouaiteko, 
Elhurra  duk  bortian : 
Algarreki  jouanengutuk 
Elhurra  hourtzen  denian. 

Petit  oiseau,  blanche  nacelle, 
Qui  fait  en  I'air  vogucr  son  aile, 
D'Espagne  gagnes-tu  les  monts? 
Dans  les  ports  que  Thiver  assiege, 
Laisse,  crois-moi,  fondre  la  neige  : 
Ensemble  nous  les  passerons. 

Although  neighbors,  as  a  rule,  seldom  live  on  friendly 
terms,  on  the  Spanish  frontier  of  France  peace  has 
never  been  disturbed.  An  explanation  of  this  may  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  it  is  not  actually  Frenchmen  and 
Spaniards  who  meet  on  that  frontier,  but  the  Basques 
of  France  and  the  Basques  of  Spain  ;  and  as  all  the 
Basques  of  Spain  are  Carlists,  they  turned  the  French 
Basques  into  Carlists  too.  At  all  events,  the  personal 
support  which  Carlism  obtains  in  the  frontier  villages 
is  quite  as  efficient  as  the  material  support  which  its 
leaders  receive  at  Bayonne.  Every  Carlist  that  has, 
for  some  reason  or  other,  to  enter  France,  is  sure  to 
find  a  safe  and  hospitable  home ;  and  the  cure  Santa 
Cruz  has  lived  at  St.-Jean-de-Luz  for  months  and 
months,  both  before  entering  Spain  and  after  having 
fled  thence,  and  though  the  police  and  the  gendarmes 
were  daily  and  nightly  on  loot  to  discover  him,  they 
had  never  any  chance  of  success.  Since  the  advent 
of  Marshal  McMahon,  the  importation  of  arms  and 
other  war  materials  had  also  been  greatly  facilitated. 


BAYONNE  AND  BIARRITZ.  29 

There  exist  in  the  south  of  France  two  lines  of  custom- 
house :  the  first  runs  through  Bayonne,  along  the 
Southern  railroad;  the  other  along  the  frontier  itself. 
A  decree  of  M.  Thiers,  of  March,  1873,  prohibited  the 
transfer  of  arms  and  war  material  beyond  the  first  of 
those  lines,  so  that  anything  that  the  Carlists  wished 
to  bring  into  Spain  could  be  stopped  at  Bayonne,  and 
all  along  the  road  from  Bayonne  to  the  frontier.  The 
chances  of  such  materials  being  captured  were  thus 
greatly  increased.  But  after  Marshal  McMahon  had 
assumed  power,  the  French  Legitimists  in  Paris  managed 
somehow  or  other  to  have  that  decree  annulled,  so 
that  arms  and^war  material  could  be  brought  close  to  the 
frontier  without  interruption  by  any  one  ;  and  as  there 
is  nothing  more  easy  than  to  smuggle  them  during 
the  night  through  the  endless  mountain  and  forest 
paths,  all  those  who  wished  to  support  the  Spanish 
Pretender  found  useful  *  and  even  profitable  employ- 
ment. 

I  begin  to  think,  however,  that  we  ought  to  pro- 
gress more  speedily  towards  those  mountains.  We 
touch  already  La  Rhune,  the  first  Pyrenean  height 
in  this  part  of  the  country,  and  the  only  one  which 
Paris  excursionists  attempt  to  ascend,  when  anxious 
to  have  a  look  at  the  Spanish  territory.  But  we 
have  to  go  much  farther  than  they  go,  and  tliough 
in  Spain  things  se  empiezan  tarde^  y  se  acaban  nunca 
(are  commenced  late  and  finished  never),  in  this 
business-like  country  the  same  principle  "would  not 
answer."  So  let  us  get  rid  of  Biarritz,  Bayonne, 
and  the  Basques,  and  proceed  at  once  to  the  sad  but 
charming  land  tras  los  monies. 


30  SPAIN  AND   THR  SPANIARDS, 


CHAPTER  II. 

FIEST    VISIT    TO    THE    CARLIST    CAMPS. 

NEVER  would  I  have  thought,  on  leaving  London, 
that  I  should  have  to  take  to  smuggling,  and  be 
transformed  into  a  mysterious  Spanish  contrahandista. 
Yet  such  was  the  case.  To  be  able  to  get  on  a  sure 
footing  among  the  partisans  of  Charles  VI I.,  one  wanted, 
first  of  all,  to  get  the  necessary  permission  and  safe- 
conduct  from  General  Elio.  He  being,  however,  in  the 
mountains,  I  had  to  depend  upon  Cailist  representa- 
tives at  Bayonne  for  finding  out  his  whereabouts.  One 
of  them,  a  most  accomplished  gentleman,  said  he  would 
do  everything  in  his  power,  provided  I  would  not  ob- 
ject to  going  somewhat  out  of  the  usual  way  of  trav- 
elling, and  would  for  a  few  hours  submit  to  certain 
restrictions  of  my  free-will.  It  was  impossible  to  go 
straight  by  the  high  road  to  the  frontier,  for  M.  Thiers' 
gendarmes  and  soldiers,  posted  at  all  the  frontier  cus- 
tom-houses, had  strict  instructions  to  let  no  one  pass 
into  such  portions  of  Spain  as  were  occupied  by  the 
Carlists.  Those  who  wished  to  go  to  the  Peninsula 
had  to  go  either  md  Irun,  the  only  frontier  town  still 
in  Republican  hands,  or  take  a  steamer  at  Marseilles 
to  Barcelona,  or  at  Bayonne  to  San  Sebastian,  Bilbao, 
or  Santander.     But  it  was  only  in  theory,  not  in  actual 


FIRST   VISIT  TO   THE   CARLIST  CAMPS.     31 

practice,  that  communication  with  Carlij^t  territory  was 
cut  off,  for  both  arms  and  men  did  cross  the  frontier, 
only  they  did  not  cross  it  by  the  high  roads,  on  which 
w^atch  was  kept. 

There  are  two  railway  lines  from  France  to  Spain  ; 
the  one  runs  via  Bayonne,  the  other  via  Perpignan. 
Between  these  two  lines,  on  the  whole  length  of  the 
Pyrenean  chain,  are  several  roads,  with  post  coaches, 
old-fashioned  inns,  little  custom-houses,  stupid  doua- 
niers^  most  clever  contrabandistas^  and  all  the  rest  of 
it.  These  roads  are  excellent  and  most  picturesque, 
and  the  horses  and  mules  of  the  locality  think  noth- 
ing of  eight  or  even  ten  miles  an  hour,  notwithstand- 
ing the  road  running  all  the  time  sharply  up  and  down 
hill.  It  was  on  these  roads  that  the  close  watch  on 
Carlists  had  been  established  by  M.  Thiers.  Every  carl 
was  searched,  every  carriage  examined,  every  rider  and 
pedestrian  asked  to  give  a  full  account  of  his  intentions 
and  his  destination.  But  right  and  left  of  every  one  of 
these  high  roads  are  forest  and  mountain  paths  trodden 
out  by  shepherds  and  smugglers  since  times  immemorial, 
and,  as  to  their  number  and  directions,  defying  all  cal- 
culation. A  few  of  them  are  comfortable  enough  for 
a  clever  mule  to  pass  with  its  burden  ;  but  no  gen- 
darme or  douanier^  however  valiant  he  may  be,  has 
ever  ventured  to  enter  them  ex  officio.  He  would  be 
lost  if  he  did  not  meet  any  smuggler  to  show  him  the 
way,  and  would  be  murdered  if  he  attempted  to  inter- 
fere w4th  the  man's  avocation.  These  rocky,  lonely 
tracks  were  now  the  leading  thoroughfares  of  Carlism. 

On  the  day  fixed  for  my  starting,  at  about  five 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  an  elegant  carriage  and  pair 


32  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

drove  to  my  hotel  at  Bayonne,  and  the  waiter  came  to 
inform  me  that  a  gentleman  was  waiting  for  me.  It 
was  agreed  beforehand  that  I  should  have  nothing  in 
the  way  of  luggage  except  an  umbrella,  a  plaid,  and 
a  pocket  revolver,  upon  the  carrying  of  which  I  in- 
sisted, and  which  proved  perfectly  useless.  I  took 
good  care  not  to  make  my  friend  wait,  and  found  hira 
in  the  carriage,  in  company  with  something  very  simi- 
lar to  a  coffin.  It  occuj^ied  the  whole  width  of  the 
front  seat  of  the  carriage,  and  was  covered  with  a 
black  cloth.  Some  passers-by  began  already  to  as- 
semble as  we  drove  away,  and  my  companion  said  that 
he  was  not  sure  that  inquiries  would  not  be  made  at 
his  house  as  to  whether  any  of  his  children  had  died. 
"  If  I  had  not  to  fetch  you,  I  would  have  avoided  the 
heading  street,"  said  he ;  and  on  my  inquiring  what  the 
coffin-like  box  contained,  answered,  with  the  heartiest 
laugh,  "  One  of  the  two  brass  cannons  you  have  seen 
the  other  day  at  L.'s  country-house.  But  don't  be 
uneasy  about  that.  We  shall  get  through  all  right. 
Besides,  I  told  you  you  had  to  submit  to  my  orders 
if  you  wished  to  pass."  Of  course,  I  answered  I  was 
not  uneasy,  though  I  had  full  reason  to  feel  that,  if 
the  French  authorities  caught  us,  we  should  have  no 
end  of  police  troubles,  while  the  Spanish  would  be 
almost  justified  in  shooting  us  at  sight.  But,  some- 
how or  other,  as  soon  as  we  were  out  of  the  walls  of 
Bayonne,  on  the  long  and  beautiful  road  of  Donchari- 
nea,  I  forgot  all  about  the  uncomfortable  article  we 
were  carrying,  and  the  purpose  for  which  we  carried  it. 
The  weather  had  speedily  changed  on  that  after- 
noon.   Towards  six  o'clock  the  sky  was  quite  covered, 


FIRST   VISIT   TO    THE    CARLIST  CAMPS.     33 

and  towards  eight  so  lieavy  a  rain  and  so  perfect  a 
darkness  set  in  that  we  both  began  to  slumber.  All 
at  once  the  carriage  stoppel,  and  a  number  of  suspi- 
cious-looking persons  appeared  at  both  the  doors.  I 
was  just  about  to  ask  my  companion  whether  I  would 
be  permitted  to  get  "uneasy"  now,  when  I  heard, 
"  Ah,  here  are  our  men,''  and  was  asked  to  alight.  I 
had  still  not  made  out  what  we  were  about,  when  the 
cofiin-like  box  was  taken  out  of  the  carriage  and  carried 
off  into  an  apparently  quite  impracticable  wood,  as 
nimbly  as  if  it  were  a  bundle  of  bamboos.  The  opera- 
tion was  done  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  and  the  six 
men  who  carried  avv^ay  the  heavy  case  looked,  under 
the  light  which  the  carnage  lanterns  threw  upon  them, 
like  so  many  gigantic  highwaymen  of  some  sensational 
novel. 

"  It  is  their  business  now  to  carry  that  piece  across, 
and  we  have  nothing  moie  to  care  about,"  said  my 
friend.  "  A  couple  of  miles  more  drive  and  we  shall 
have  a  good  supper  and  a  first-rate  guide ;  I  am  only 
sorry  that  the  night  is  so  shockingly  bad,  else  you 
would  surely  have  enjoyed  the  trip." 

About  a  mile  this  side  of  the  Doncharinea  bridge, 
in  the  middle  of  which  passes  the  actual  frontier  line 
between  Fi-ance  and  Spain,  and  on  which  any  person 
fond  of  majestic  positions  can  easily  have  the  treat  of 
trampling  with  one  foot  anarchical  Spain,  and  with  the 
other  disreputable  France,  is  a  little  village  of  the 
name  of  Ainhoue,  the  last  French  village  on  that  road. 
The  large  inn  here  is  ke])t  by  four  exceedingly  tall,  ex- 
ceedingly dark,  and  exceedingly  sharp  sisters.  The 
eldest,  a  spinster  about  forty-five,  is   the   manageress 


34  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

of  the  concern ;  and  should  I  ever  know  a  man  in 
want  of  a  heroine  for  a  romance,  I  shall  send  him  to 
the  auberge  of  Marie  Osacar,  to  study  that  remarkable 
specimen  of  womankind.  French,  Spanish,  and  Bas- 
quese  tongues  are  not  only  at  her  command,  but  are 
each  used  with  somethings  of  a  classical  ele^yance. 
There  is,  besides,  scarcely  any  patois  in  which  she 
does  not  feel  as  comfortable  as  a  fish  in  the  water. 
On  my  expressing  my  astonishment  at  her  versatility, 
she  merely  remarked  that  her  line  of  business  required 
it.  And  what  this  "  line  of  business  "  is,  would  be  by 
no  means  easy  to  describe  in  a  word  or  two,  as  it  is 
done  when  one  speaks  of  commonplace  human  crea- 
tures. Besides  being  an  inn-keeper,  this  worthy  spin- 
ster is  a  money-lender,  a  political  agent  for  Don  Carlos, 
a  police  agent  for  the  French  prefect,  a  commission- 
merchant,  the  head  of  a  band  of  smugglers,  and  a 
perfect  master  of  all  the  gendarmes,  custom-house 
officers,  and  every  local  authority,  Spanish  as  well  as 
French.  When  we  arrived  at  her  inn,  she  shook 
hands  with  my  companion  in  a  manner  that  showed 
that  they  were  old  and  intimate  friends.  Some  signifi- 
cant twinkles  of  the  eye  were  exchanged,  some  un- 
intelligible Basque  sentences  uttered  in  an  undertone 
voice,  and  all  seemed  to  have  been  settled  immedi- 
ately. An  excellent  rural  sujiper  was  served  to  us, 
with  a  bottle  of  good  Bordeaux,  and  as  there  were 
other  people  in  the  dining-room,  we  were  officially 
informed  by  the  amiable  landlady,  about  ten  o'clock, 
that  our  beds  were  ready.  But  that  was  simply  a 
stroke  of  strategy  calculated  to  make  local  customers 
retire,  so  as  to  enable  her  to  put  out  the  lights.     The 


FIRST   VISIT  TO   THE   CARLIST  CAMPS.     35 

gendarmes  were  getting  very  particular,  she  said,  and 
would  not  give  up  watching  the  house  as  long  as  they 
saw  lights.  So  my  friend  and  I  had  to  lie  down  in 
bed  for  a  while,  and  at  about  midnight  she  gently 
knocked  at  the  door,  informing  us  that  "everything 
was  ready."  This  "  everything "  consisted  of  a  mys- 
terious and  by  no  means  attractive  individual,  wrapped 
in  a  nondescript  rug,  and  armed  with  a  heavy  stick. 

"  Pray  don't  make  the  slightest  noise,  gentlemen," 
recommended  the  clever  spinster.  "Your  very  steps 
should  not  be  heard,  else  the  dogs  are  sure  to  raise 
an  infernal  barking  all  over  the  village,  and  you  will 
at  once  have  the  gendarmes  rushing  at  you.  Don't 
open  your  umbrellas  either,  for  the  fall  of  rain  upon 
them  would  certainly  be  heard." 

Such  and  similar  were  the  experien-ced  female's 
advices,  all  of  which  we  duly  complied  with,  and 
passed  the  village  as  successfully  as  any  escaping  bur- 
glar ever  did.  Our  guide,  in  his  soundless  sandals, 
was,  while  marching  ahead  of  us,  no  more  audible 
than  our  shadow  would  have  been,  and  we  really  did 
all  that  was  in  our  power  to  imitate  him.  We  began 
to  breathe  freely  only  when  quite  out  of  the  village, 
and  away  from  the  high  road. 

It  would  be  perfectly  idle  on  my  part  to  attempt  to 
describe  this  pedestrian  night  tour.  We  were  thor- 
oughly wet  in  a  few  minutes,  and  had  some  seven 
miles  to  scramble  over  forest  and  mountain  paths,  in 
themselves  probably  very  picturesque ;  but  I  saw  noth- 
ing but  darkness,  and  felt  nothing  but  rain  and  most 
slippery  mud.  Now  and  then  our  guide  stopped  and 
seemed  to  listen  to  something ;  nothing,  however,  was 


36  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

to  be  heard  except  the  heavy  fall  of  rain  on  the  trees 
and  the  distant  roll  of  mountain  streams.  It  took  us 
two  monotonous  and  tiresome  hours  to  reach  the  actual 
frontier,  and  to  bring  ourselves  out  of  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  French  gendarmes,  and  another  hour's  quite  as 
fatiguing  walk  put  us  face  to  face  with  the  first  Carlist 
outpost. 

Of  course,  there  came  the  usual  "  Halt !"  "  Who  are 
you?"  "I  will  shoot  you!"  and  similar  exclamations, 
more  or  less  justified  by  the  profound  darkness  we 
were  plunged  in.  By  and  by,  however,  everything 
was  satisfactorily  explained,  and  we  were  escorted  to 
the  old  deserted  monastery  of  the  first  Spanish  vil- 
lage, called  Urdax,  where  a  couple  of  rooms  were  pro- 
visionally fitted  up  for  General  Elio,  the  actual  com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  whole  Carlist  army,  but  nomi- 
nally "the  Minister  of  War  and  Head  of  the  General 
Staff  of  His  Majesty  Charles  YII.,  King  of  all  Spains." 

It  was  nearly  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  as 
one  may  imagine,  the  old  gentleman  we  wanted  was 
sound  asleep.  But  a  Carlist  colonel,  quite  as  old  as 
the  general  himself,  a  companion  in  arms  of  his  in 
the  Seven  Years'  War,  and  now  his  temporary  aide-de- 
camp, said  that  he  had  orders  to  awaken  El  Excelen- 
tisimo  Senor  General  whenever  any  one  arrived  or 
any  news  was  brought ;  and  with  a  tallow  candle, 
without  even  a  substitute  for  a  candlestick  in  his 
hand,  he  showed  us  the  way  to  the  general's  bedroom. 
On  an  immense  old-fashioned  bed,  with  discolored 
chintz  curtains,  was  lying  an  old  man  with  a  full  gray 
beard,  and  a  colored  silk  handkerchief  tied  on  his 
head.     There   was   not   the   slightest   vestige   of  any 


FIRST   VISIT  TO    THE   CAR  LIST  CAMPS.     37 

military  attribute  in  the  room,  and  looking  at  the  old 
man  in  his  night  garment,  one  would  have  taken  him 
for  a  retired  lawyer,  retired  professor,  retired  trades- 
man —  for  anything  retired,  but  never  for  a  general  in 
active  service  at  ihe  head  of  a  incoherent  mass  of  vol- 
unteers, bearing,  to  the  common  belief  of  the  outside 
world,  a  very  close  similarity  to  brigands.  The  old 
gentlemnn  gave  me  full  leisure  to  examine  him  and 
his  entourage^  for  he  did  not  take  the  slightest  notice 
of  me  till  he  had  put  on  his  spectacles,  lighted  a  cigar, 
and  looked  through  a  large  bundle  of  letters  which  my 
companion  had  brought  him.  Now  and  then  he  put 
him  a  question,  or  requested  liim  to  read  something 
he  could  not  make  out  himself,  and  it  was  only  when 
he  had  gone  through  the  whole  correspondence,  that 
he  asked  my  fellow-traveller  who  I  was,  and  what  he 
brought  me  for.  I  was  then  introduced,  handed  him 
my  credentials,  and  explained  the  object  of  my  visit. 

"  O,  I  shall  be  very  glad,"  answered  he,  with  the 
kindest  smile,  "to  give  you  any  information  I  can; 
and,  if  I  were  a  qu.'irter  of  a  century  younger,  I  should 
have  at  once  got  up  and  had  a  talk  with  you.  But 
I  am  too  old  for  that.  Besides,  I  suppose  you  want 
something  more  than  to  have  a  mere  talk.  You  want 
to  see  something.  So  we  will  arrange  things  differ- 
ently. Your  friend  will  return  to  Bnyonne,  wliile  you 
had  better  stay  here  over  night,  and  we  shall  see  to- 
morrow what  we  have  to  do.  Mennwhile,  I  advise 
you  both  to  dry  your  clothes,  and  to  have  a  glass  of 
aguardiente  with  some  hot  water,  if  there  is  any  to  be 
had.  That  will  answer  for  punch."  And  thereupon 
the  old  pro  tempore  aide-de-camp  was  ordered  to  take 


38  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

care   of   us,   the    general   wishing    all   of   us   huenas 
noches. 

In  the  next  room  a  stoat  old  priest,  in  a  rather  greasy 
cassock  and  a  little  black  velvet  cap,  his  housekeeper 
just  as  stout  and  greasy  as  himself,  and  wrapped  in  an 
old-fjisbioned  shawl,  and  a  couple  of  old  Carlist  officers, 
were  already  assembled.  The  news  of  the  arrival  of 
strangers  had  evidently  spread  amongst  the  inhabitants 
of  the  deserted  cloister,  and  they  all  got  up,  anxious 
to  hear  whether  there  were  any  noticias.  Some  choco- 
late, aguardiente,  sugar,  water,  and  cigarettes  were  iii 
readiness  on  the  table,  and  a  bright  wood  fire  was 
pleasantly  crackling  in  the  huge,  ancient-looking  fire- 
grate. The  reception  was  most  friendly  and  homely. 
An  apology  was  made  for  the  absence  of  any  fresh 
socks,  but  two  pairs  of  new  hempen  sandals  were 
brought  forward,  to  enable  us  to  get  rid  of  our  wet 
boots,  while  the  cure  insisted  upon  our  rubbing  our 
feet  with  some  salt  and  vinegar,  as  upon  a  cosa  muy 
hueiia.  And  while  we  were  thus  drying,  cleaning,  and 
restoring  ourselves,  all  sorts  of  questions  poured  upon 
us  like  another  shower.  "Where  was  S.  M.  El  Rey? 
What  was  said  in  Europe?  Did  many  people  in 
France,  England,  and  America  turn  into  Cnrlists  ? 
Were  there  any  arms  going  to  be  sent?  Was  any 
money  forthcoming  in  support  of  the  great  causa? 
Would  Henri  V.  soon  ascend  the  throne  of  France?" 
and  so  on.  We  were  anxious  to  satisfy  our  hospitable 
hosts  to  the  best  of  our  ability,  but  still  more  anxious 
to  ascertain  whether  there  was  any  chance  of  procur- 
ing a  rideable  beast  for  my  companion  and  a  bed  for 
myself.    The  old  housekeeper  was  the  first  to  perceive 


FIRST   VISIT  TO   THE   CARLIST  CAMPS.     39 

our  cravings,  and,  thanks  to  her,  after  about  an  hour 
and  a  half  of  gossip,  I  was  lying  in  a  hard  but  clean 
bed,  and  my  friend  carried  off  as  far  as  the  frontier  by 
the  old,  yet  still  sure-footed,  mule  of  the  fat  Senor  cura. 
My  bed  was  in  the  same  room  where  we  were  drying 
ourselves.  It  was  looking  very  unattractive  when  we 
came  in,  but  as  I  noticed  that  the  sheets  and  pillow- 
cases were  changed  by  the  stout  housekeeper,  whilst 
our  conversation  was  going  on,  I  lay  down  in  full  con- 
fidence, and  slept  as  sweetly  as  if  I  had  been  in  some 
friend's  country-house  in  Kent  or  Massachusetts.  Early 
next  morning, — or  rather  in  a  couple  of  hours,  for  I 
went  to  bed  after  five  A.  M.,  —  I  was  awakened  by 
some  noise  in  the  room,  and  saw,  much  to  my  aston- 
ishment, the  old  colonel  busily  engaged  in  instructing 
a  niuchacho^  or  volunteer  lad,  how,  if  not  exactly  to 
polish,  at  least  to  clean  my  boots.  I  jumped  out  of 
the  bed  as  quickly  as  I  could,  and  tried  to  persuade 
the  colonel  that  there  was  no  occasion  for  his  taking 
any  trouble  of  that  sort;  but  my  exhortation  made  the 
matter  only  worse,  for  he  took  the  brush  and  boots  out 
of  the  lad's  hands,  and  began  violently  to  brush  them 
himself.  A  regular  struggle  ensued  between  us,  and 
though  I  managed  finally  to  get  the  boots  out  of  his 
possession,  things  did  not  much  improve  on  that  ac- 
count; for  in  a  few  minutes  he  appeared  with  a  basin 
of  water,  wherewith  I  had  to  wash  myself,  and  a  little 
later  with  my  coat,  plaid,  and  umbrella  perfectly  dried 
and  cleaned,  and  I  learned  also  that  the  bed  I  had  slept 
in  was  his  bed.  It  was  evident  that  he  mistook  me  for 
some  important  person,  and  wishing  to  render  himself 
generally  useful,  overdid  the  hospitality  which  one  is 


40  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

always  sure  to  meet  on  tlie  part  of  the  simple-minded 
country  folk  in  Spain.  That  our  colonel  was  very  sim- 
ple-minded indeed,  will  probably  be  clear  without  my 
pointing  it  out.  He  entered  the  ranks  of  the  Carlists 
as  a  private  in  1833,  and  rose  to  a  colonelcy  through 
sheer  courage.  He  retired  to  Iiis  native  village  when 
the  war  was  over,  and  had  now  reappeared,  again  to 
take  part  in  the  struggle.  His  occupations  at  home 
were,  perhaps,  of  a  nature  which  caused  him  to  Iook  at 
boot-cleaning  as  quite  a  pleasant  sort  of  work  for  a 
change,  since  boots  ai'e  a  thing  almost  unknown  in  the 
Basque  provinces,  scarcely  anything  being  used  but 
hempen  sandals.  Still  I  must  avow  that  the  sight  of  a 
boot-cleaning  colonel,  when  one  first  visits  a  foreign 
army,  produces  a  rather  queer  impression.  Yet  I  saw 
that  man  frequently  afterwards,  tried  to  study  lum,  and 
never  lound  in  his  natuie  anything  but  profound  self-es- 
teem, unlimited  courage,  and  quite  an  un-Spanisli  sense 
of  duty.  Only,  good  gracious!  what  a  thick  skull  that 
old  fellow  had !  It  was  truly  a  dura  cabeza  JEspanola. 
Scarcely  had  I  time  to  dress  when  the  colonel  ap- 
peared again,  saying  that  El  Excelentisimo  Seiior  Gen- 
eral asked  for  me.  I  went  into  the  next  room,  and 
found  the  old  gentleman  seated  at  a  table,  answering  the 
letters  brought  to  him  during  the  night.  He  was  dressed 
in  private  clothes,  and  a  casual  visitor,  on  seeing  his 
venerable  face  and  peaceful  spectacles,  would  have 
probably  taken  him  for  a  medical  man  writing  pre- 
scriptions. Two  little  cups  of  thick  chocolate,  with 
bits  of  dry  toast,  and  two  glasses  of  water,  were 
brought  in  by  the  old  aide-de-camp,  and  the  general 
invited  me  to  take  breakfast. 


FIRST   VISIT  TO    THE   CAR  LIST  CAMPS.     41 

"  I  am  glad  you  have  arrived  so  timely,"  said  Le  to 
me ;  "  I  am  going  to  have  an  inspeclion  tour  tiiis  morn- 
ing, and,  if  you  like,  I  can  offer  you  a  seat  in  a  liltle 
carriage  which  they  have  provided  for  me.  We  may 
remain  on  the  tour  for  several  days,  and  may  have 
sometimes  hard  fare,  and  perhaps  hard  lodging,  cer- 
tainly rain ;  but  that,  I  suppose,  will  not  frighten  you, 
else  you  wouhi  not  have  come  here." 

I  thanked  the  general,  nnd  gladly  accepted  his  invi- 
tation, but,  being  then  fresh  to  Carlist  work,  wondered 
only  how  I  should  proceed  on  an  expedition  of  several 
days,  having  not  even  a  shirt  or  a  tooth-brush  with  me. 
As  he  said,  howevei-,  that  he  had  some  more  letters  to 
write,  and  that  I  had  time  to  take  a  walk  about  tlie 
viUage,  I  thought  I  might  get  a  chance  of  sending  a 
note  to  Bayonne,  and  receive  some  of  my  thmgs,  if  not 
the  same  day,  at  least  before  our  journey  was  over. 

Urdax  is  a  miserable  little  village,  situaied  in  a  kind 
of  loophole,  and  within  about  a  mile  from  the  French 
frontier.  It  consists  of  scarcely  a  hundred  houses,  but 
the  village  must  have  been  a  prosperous  one  formerly, 
for  some  of  the  houses  are  of  a  very  substantial  appear- 
ance, with  coats  of  arms  on  the  entrance-doors,  and 
with  everything  to  denote  that  the  proprietors  were 
enjoying  a  comfortable  income.  As  a  matter  of  course, 
the  chief  occupation  of  its  inhabitants  was  smuggling. 
But,  at  the  time  I  was  at  Urdax,  no  business  of  any 
sort  was  transacted,  nor  was  there  any  one  to  carry  it 
on,  the  wdiole  village  being  occui)ied  by  Carlist  volun- 
teers, only  a  few  of  whom  were  armed,  the  majority 
being  all  day  long  engaged  in  the  village  square  either 
in  beinoj  drilled  with  sticks  in  their  hands  as  substitutes 


42  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

for  rifles,  or  else  in  playing  ball.  The  upper  floor  of 
the  deserted  convent,  in  a  room  of  which  the  general 
was  lodged,  served  as  barracks  for  those  volunteers  who 
could  not  find  lodging  elsewhere ;  while  the  basement, 
evidently  containing  formerly  the  monks'  refectories  and 
conversation-hall,  was  transferred  into  stables  for  the 
few  horses  and  mules  which  the  Urdax  force  had  in 
its  possession. 

When  I  came  down  into  the  square,  I  found  the  old 
colonel  engaged  in  looking  after  an  old  four-wheeler 
inscribed  Sermcio  Particular^  and  which  was  probably 
a  remnant  of  some  postal  establishment.  Five  mules 
were  being  harnessed  to  it,  and  three  volunteers  were 
to  form  the  general's  guard  on  the  journey.  I  won- 
dered in  what  way  the  colonel  meant  to  make  them 
escort  us,  but  I  soon  found  that  the  problem  was  very 
plainly  solved.  One  volunteer  got  on  the  box  by  the 
side  of  the  driver,  and  two  inside  the  carriage  together 
with  us ;  and  when  tlie  general  was  ready  with  his  let- 
ters, away  we  rattled  with  a  certain  serious  gayety,  for 
there  is  always  some  sort  of  pleasurable  excitement  in 
getting  oflT.  Our  cheerfulness  was,  however,  justified 
by  the  fact  that  the  cannon  which  had  been  left  in  the 
wood  on  the  previous  night,  was  now  lying  on  the 
ground  in  the  middle  of  the  square,  and  some  five  hun- 
dred volunteers  assembled  around  it  were  getting  quite 
mad,  crying.  Viva  Carlos  SetiTno!  Viva  El  Ge7ieral 
Elio !  Viva  el  canon!  and  viva  a  good  many  things 
else.  The  six  contrabandistas  got  two  hundied  and 
fifty  francs,  plenty  of  wine,  plenty  of  cheers,  and  started 
back  with  fresh  instructions  to  be  carried  out  on  an- 
other i^oint  on  the  next  day.     "The  cannon  has  not 


FIRST   VISIT   TO    THE    CARLIST   CAMPS.     43 

yet  either  a  gun-carriage  or  any  ammunition,"  said  the 
general,  "  but  still  it  is  something  that  we  have  got  this 
much.  Don't  they  look  happy,  the  chicosf''  (little 
ones)  added  he,  with  a  smile  of  satisfaction ;  and  leav- 
ing them  in  their  martial  exhilaration,  we  entered  the 
carriage,  the  old  boot-cleaning  colonel,  who  did  not  go 
with  us,  promising  me  to  forward  my  note  to  Bayonne, 
and  thus  giving  me  the  prospect  that,  at  least  on  my 
return  to  Urdax,  I  should  get  a  clean  shirt. 


General  Elio  is  the  oldest  leading  member  of  the 
Carlist  party,  and  is,  at  the  same  time,  regarded  as 
their  ablest  man.  Constant  personal  intercourse  dur- 
ing our  journey,  and  the  frequent  opportunities  I  had 
subsequently  both  of  seeing  the  general  at  work  and 
of  talking  to  him,  entitle  me  to  say  that  I  found  him  to 
be  a  most  accomplished  and  able  man,  —  I  was  almost 
going  to  say  a  genius  in  his  way,  —  and,  strange  as  it 
may  sound,  one  of  the  most  liberal  Royalists  I  know 
either  in  France  or  Spain.  He  has  lived  many  years 
an  exile  in  various  countries  of  Europe,  and  has  thus 
acquired  a  thorough  knowledge  of  their  institutions. 
It  is  impossible  for  any  one  to  look  more  like  an  old 
Englishman  than  the  general  does,  when  travelling  with 
his  English  passport,  and  with  his  umbrella,  gaiters, 
felt  hat,  and  similar  articles  —  all  marked  with  the 
names  of  London  makers. 

This  old  soldier  began  life  under  Ferdinand  VII.,  as 
an  officer  of  the  Royal  Guards.  He  was  a  colonel  at  the 
time  of  the  death  of  that  king  (1833),  and  was  among 


44  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

the  first  who  fcrmed  the  Carlist  party  ui^on  the  abroga- 
tion of  the  Salic  law,  by  wliich  abrogation  Carlos  V. 
was  deprived  of  his  rights  to  the  inheritance  of  the 
throne  of  Spain  after  the  death  of  his  brother.  Dur- 
ing the  war  for  the  liglits  of  the  aspirant  thus  put 
aside,  —  known  in  Carlist  history  as  the  Seven  Years' 
War,  —  Elio  commanded  a  brigade ;  and  driving  now 
up  and  down  the  liills  of  Navarre,  he  constantly  pointed 
to  nie  villages  and  other  places  where  there  were  com- 
bats in  the  old  time,  evidently  regretting  that  he  no 
longer  possessed  I  he  physical  vigor  of  forty  years  ago. 
When,  in  1839,  the  Carlist  struggle  came  to  an  end, 
Elio  went  abroad  with  Charles  Y,,  and  had  but  few 
opportunities  to  take  any  part  in  politics  until  1860, 
when  he  joined  Ortega's  attempt  to  bring  upon  the 
throne  Count  de  Montemolin  (Charles  YI.).  Ortega 
was  Governor-General  of  the  Balearic  Islands,  and  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  raising  the  garrison  under  his  com- 
mand in  favor  of  Charles  YI.  He  landed  with  his 
adhei  ents  on  the  Catalonian  coast,  near  Tortosa ;  but 
the  attempt  proved  a  failure,  and  both  Ortega  and  Elio 
were  captured  at  San  Carlos  de  la  Rapita,  and  con- 
demned to  be  shot.  During  his  long  residence  in 
France,  Elio  had,  however,  foimed  many  frien<lly  rela- 
tions in  that  country ;  his  sister  was  married  to  the 
Count  de  Barraute,  a  wealthy  land  proprietor  in  the 
French  Pyrenees,  and  there  were,  therefore,  plenty  of 
influential  persons  anxious  to  exert  their  best  efforts  to 
rescue  the  general.  Means  were  also  taken  to  enlist 
the  sympathies  of  the  Empress  Eugenie  in  his  favor; 
and  her  mother,  the  Countess  of  Montijo,  though  by 
no  means  a  partisan  of  the  Carlists,  lost  no  time  in 


FIRST   VISIT  TO   THE   CARLIST  CAMPS.     45 

exerting  all  her  influence  in  Madrid  to  save  the  life  of 
one  who  both  there  and  in  Paris  had  gained  the  repu- 
tation of  being  one  of  the  most  charming  and  amiable 
of  men.  These  efforts  proved  so  successful  thnt  Queen 
Isabella  proposed  to  pardon  Elio  on  the  condition  that 
he  should  swear  allegiance  to  her.  But  when  the  de- 
cision of  the  queen  was  announced  to  the  general,  he 
said  he  W'Ould  not  purchase  his  life  at  the  price  of  an 
oath  which  his  honor  prevented  him  from  keeping;  and 
Isabella  seems  to  have  found  the  answer  so  lionorable 
that  she  ordered  the  immediate  release  of  Elio,  but 
upon  the  condition  of  absolute  banishment  from  Spain. 
Ortega,  however,  who  was  the  chief  leader  of  the  whole 
rising,  and  against  whom  O'Donnell  had  many  personal 
grievances,  was  not  allowed  to  escape,  and  had  to  pny 
with  his  life  for  the  unsuccessful  attempt  he  had  made. 

General  Elio  still  remembered  warmly  the  clemency 
of  Isabella,  and  spoke  of  her  as  a  much  better  Avoman 
and  a  much  better  queen  than  Spaniards  generally 
admit  her  to  have  been. 

"  She  was  ruined  politically,"  he  said,  "  by  people  like 
Louis  Philippe,  Montpensier,  and  Narvaez,  and  morally 
by  Serrano.  It  is  possible  she  would  always  have  had 
a  favorite;  that  is  a  question  of  temperament,  and  with 
her  it  was  also  a  question  of  conjugal  unhappiness; 
but  in  the  hands  of  Serrano  she  became  demoralized 
to  the  heart's  core.  And  this  despicable  person  had 
the  effl-ontery  not  only  to  overthrow  his  mistress  and 
his  benefactress,  but  to  sign  a  declaration  in  which  it 
was  stated  that  Spaniards  were  obliged  to  conceal  from 
their  wives  and  daughters  what  was  going  on  in  the 
royal  palace." 


46  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

Since  the  days  of  Ortega's  attempt,  the  general  had 
again  nearly  twelve  years  of  exile  to  endure;  and  it  is 
only  now,  when  he  is  quite  seventy  years  of  age,  that 
he  has  a  new  chance  of  serving  the  cause  he  had  — 
rightly  or  wrongly — once  embraced,  and  never  since 
deserted.  At  the  present  moment  he  is  the  leading 
spirit  of  Carlism,  for  nothing  is  done  either  by  Don 
Carlos,  or  by  any  of  the  Carlist  leaders,  except  under 
the  advice  —  sometimes  under  the  very  peremptory  or- 
ders —  of  old  Elio. 

The  civilian  habits  and  manners  of  Elio  had  become 
quite  proverbial  on  the  staff  of  Don  Carlos.  He  never 
wears  either  spurs,  sabre,  or  any  other  military  w^eapon 
or  ornament.  His  costume  consists  of  a  dark-blue, 
rather  long  buttoned-up  surtout,  the  few  copper  but- 
tons of  wliich  are  the  only  glittering  appendage  about 
him.  His  red  trousers,  always  very  large  and  without 
any  vestige  of  riding-straps,  get  so  rucked  up,  when  he 
is  on  horseback,  as  to  show  the  very  tops  of  his  soft, 
heelless  halfWellington  boots.  His  white  national 
beret  has  not  even  the  customary  golden  tassel  on  it. 
When  there  were  processions  or  other  ceremonies  at 
the  time  of  the  reception  of  Don  Carlos  in  the  various 
villages,  and  the  general,  much  to  his  dislike,  had  to  be 
present,  he  had  always  to  borrow  from  some  of  his  aides- 
de-camp,  sabre,  scarf,  tassel,  and  everything  that  was 
necessary  to  make  him  assume  an  official  and  military 
appearance. 

Under  the  enemy's  fire,  old  Elio  is  inimitable.  The 
greater  the  danger  the  more  he  smokes;  and  the  more 
he  smokes  the  more  serene  he  becomes,  quietly  smiling 
as  he  looks  over  his  spectacles,  and  slowly  and  dis- 


FIRST  VISIT  TO   THE    CARLIST  CAMPS.     47 

tinctly,  without  the  slightest  hurry  or  appearance  of 
excitement,  giving  his  orders  to  the  members  of  his 
staff.  Invariably  mounted  on  a  little  white  pony, 
under  which  his  legs  would  easily  meet,  he  frequently 
exposes  himself  to  quite  an  unnecessary  amount  of 
danger;  and  when  his  attention  is  called  to  such  afjict, 
he  gives  a  soft,  spurless  kick  to  his  little  beast,  makes 
a  demi-tour,  and,  as  a  rule,  comes  back  to  the  same 
place  again.  By  and  by,  as  the  Carlist  war  was  pro- 
gressing, the  general  received  no  end  of  applications 
from  old  friends  who  wished  to  send  him  their  sons  and 
nephews  to  be  attached  to  his  person  ;  and  in  this  way 
he  has  around  himself,  and,  much  to  his  displeasure,  an 
endless  staff  of  officers,  some  of  whom  are  not  partic- 
ularly fond  of  going  too  much  under  fire.  It  happened 
several  times  that,  out  of  something  like  twenty  aides- 
de-camp  and  orderly  officers,  the  general,  when  under 
fire,  had  by  his  side  but  three  or  four  men.  Yet  he 
never  made  any  reproach  to  those  who  were  absent. 
Without  ever  turning  his  eyes  from  the  battle-field,  he 
calls  out  the  name  of  the  officer  to  whom  he  wishes  to 
give  an  order;  and  if  he  is  not  there,  he  calls  another; 
and,  should  he  not  be  present,  a  third.  If  none  an- 
swer, you  are  sure  to  hear  "Juan  !"  which  is  the  name 
of  his  son,  invariably  to  be  found  by  his  side,  and  who, 
with  a  cure  of  the  name  of  Don  Ramon,  serving  him 
as  a  private  secretary,  is,  I  believe,  the  only  person 
initiated  into  the  jjlans  of  the  general. 

This  Don  Ramon  is  also  a  most  curious  sort  of  indi- 
vidual. Sharp  as  a  needle,  indefatigable  at  work,  and 
thoroughly  conversant  with  all  the  details  of  Carlist 
military  administration,  he  is  certainly  more  fit  to  be  a 


48  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

cahecilla  than  a  priest.  He  ricles  on  horseback  quite  as 
well  as  any  Spanish  cavalry  officer;  and  if  he  is  seldom 
visible  in  a  cassock,  he  may,  on  the  other  hand,  not 
unlVequently  be  seen  officiating  in  the  j^resence  of  Don 
Carlos  and  the  whole  staff  in  big  top-boots  and  spurs, 
and  despatching  what  is  called  a  grand  mass  in  the 
short  time  of  twelve  or  fifteen  minutes. 

The  military  abilities  of  General  Elio  are,  as  far  as  I 
am  able  to  judge,  of  a  very  high  class,  indeed.  To  do 
what  he  has  done  in  less  than  six  months,  with  the 
little  means  he  had  at  his  command,  is  something  in- 
credible. Small  bands  of  lilty  miserably-armed  men, 
which  I  saw  in  April,  1873,  were  transformed  by  the 
beginning  of  September  into  well-armed  battalions, 
about  eight  hundred  men  strong  each.  Out  of  a 
nucleus  of  a  few  thousand  men,  scattered  in  small 
bands  over  the  country,  something  looking  like  an 
army  of  over  thirty  thousand  men  was  formed  and 
under  the  orders  of  the  general  a  few  months  later. 
Although  there  was  not  much  discipline,  in  the  strict- 
est sense  of  the  word,  there  was  unlimited  obedience 
to  the  orders  of  the  leaders;  and  although  there  was 
very  little  regular  drill,  volunteers  were  somehow  or 
other  brought  to  })retty  fairly  understand  what  the 
orders  of  their  commanders  implied.  But  the  mere 
organization  of  the  troops  did  not  so  much  puzzle  an 
observer  as  the  manner  in  which  they  were  provided 
for.  When  the  raw  fighting  material  was  obtained, 
and  arms  for  their  use  provided,  it  was  not  difficult  to 
form  battalions;  but  to  feed  them,  in  a  country  which, 
though  rich,  was  already  affected  by  a  protracted  war^ 
was  a  problem  of  a  very  different  sort.     I  believe  that 


FIRST   VISIT  TO   THE    CAR  LIST  CAMPS.     49 

no  partisan  warfare  has  ever  presented  facts  like  those 
which  were  to  be  seen  amongst  the  Carlists.  A  column 
of  six,  seven,  and  sometimes  upwards  of  ten  thousand 
men,  marches  out  in  the  morning  without  the  general 
knowing  wiiere  he  will  be  compelled  to  spend  the  night, 
and  yet  his  troops  never  miss  their  rations.  How  Elio 
managed  his  commissariat  department  is  quite  a  charade 
to  me.  True,  that  the  population  of  the  country  is  very 
favorably  disj)osed  towards  the  Carlists;  but  there  still 
remains  the  emergency  of  a  general  who,  intending  to 
move  towards  a  certain  })oint,  has  ordered  his  supplies 
accordingly,  and  is  suddenly  compelled  by  circumstances 
to  change  his  march  to  an  opposite  direction,  and  to 
trust  to  chance  and  good  fortune  to  find  the  necessary 
provisions  for  his  men. 

If  the  Carlists  experienced  any  difficulty  at  all,  it  was 
only  for  cartridges,  but  that  was  not  Elios  lault.  The 
force  was  to  be  armed  quickly  and  anyhow ;  conse- 
quently, it  had  rifles  of  all  imaginable  patterns,  to 
which  cartridges  could  not  be  made  on  the  spot. 
Some  occasional  unpunctualities  in  the  supply  from 
abroad  naturally  arose,  too.  Besides,  after  the  entry 
of  Don  Carlos  into  Spain,  the  aiSuence  of  the  volun- 
teers became  so  great  that,  the  Carlist  chiefs  not  being 
disposed  to  allow  the  popular  enthusiasm  to  cool  down, 
all  moneys  had  to  be  invested  in  the  [)urchase  of  guns, 
and  but  little  was  thus  left  for  the  purchase  of  car- 
tridges. There  can  be  no  doubt  that,  with  ten  or  fif- 
teen thousand  men  well  provided  with  ammunition, 
the  C'lrlists  would  have  made  more  progress  than  they 
made  with  thirty  thousand  men  imperfectly  appointed; 
and  if  Elio  had  been  quite  independent  of  Doii  Carlos, 
4 


50  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

he  would  probably  not  have  allowed  the  force  to  rise 
so  speedily  in  numbers,  and  would  have  more  judiciously 
employed  the  money  collected. 


Though  my  excursion  in  the  general's  company  was 
exclusively  limited  to  the  province  of  Navarre,  it  lasted 
for  fully  five  days ;  for  we  had  to  stop  in  nearly  every 
village  where  troops  were  to  be  inspected,  the  muni- 
cipal authorities  confeiTcd  with,  and  all  sorts  of  orders 
and  instructions  issued,  which  hindered  a  more  speedy 
progress.  But  when  the  business  was  transacted,  and 
we  were  either  driving  on  the  high  road  or  quietly  sit- 
ting at  the  fireside  of  our  night's  lodging,  the  general 
would  now  and  then  willingly  talk  on  Carlism,  as  well 
as  on  the  general  state  of  Spanish  affairs;  and  I  will 
always  remember  with  pleasure  the  hours  I  spent  with 
the  old  gentleman,  and  when  slowly  and  in  his  low 
voice  he  gave  vent  to  his  thoughts,  always  moderate, 
always  intelligent,  and  always  full  of  that  quaint  sort 
of  scepticism  which  is  all  the  more  attractive  because 
the  man  himself  is  not  conscious  of  it. 

The  organization  of  the  Carlist  forces  was  naturally 
the  first  subject  touched  upon.  "  Our  great  support," 
said  he,  "  is  smuggling,  which,  as  you  know,  is  not  so 
very  difficult  on  the  French  frontier;  for  the  bordering 
population  in  both  countries  are  smugglers  by  '  birth 
and  education,'  as  the  English  phrase  goes.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  natural  proclivity  of  all  borderers  towards 
unrestricted  lihre  echange^  some  special  causes  are  at 
work  here  to  produce  more  smuggling  than  would  be 


FIRST   VISIT  TO   THE   CARLIST  CAMPS.     5f 

apparently  justifiable.  There  exists  a  considerable 
difference  in  the  duties  levied  in  Spain  and  France  on 
certain  articles.  Since  the  last  war  was  concluded,  and 
France  has  had  to  pay  a  heavy  indemnity,  French 
duties  have  been  raised,  while  on  the  northern  frontier 
of  Spain,  where  they  were  lower,  we  gave  instructions 
to  lower  them  still  at  all  points  where  the  custom- 
houses are  in  Carlist  possession ;  for  we  do  not  make 
any  secret  that  we  want  money,  and  I  know  that  the 
lower  the  duties  are,  the  more  in  the  long  run  will  they 
return.  Consequently,  many  articles  are  now  sent  by 
foreign  merchants  to  Spain  by  sea,  or  in  transit. across 
France,  in  which  case  they  have  nothing  to  pay  in  the 
latter  country.  On  leaching  Spanish  soil,  they  pay  the 
import  duties  either  to  the  Republicans  or  to  us,  and 
then  in  a  couple  of  days  are  smuggled  back  again  into 
France.  The  differences  between  the  French  and  Span- 
ish duties  having  existed  since  time  immemorial,  and 
having  even  formed  part  of  the  Spanish  fiscnl  policy,  it 
is  quite  natural  that  the  frontier  population  in  both 
countries  should  have  made  a  regular  profession  of 
smuggling.  The  same  thing  is,  or  was,  though  in  a 
reverse  form,  going  on  about  Gibraltar,  where  the  Eng- 
lish were  playing  with  reference  to  Spain  the  same  trick 
we  play  here  with  reference  to  France.  To  prevent 
this  traffic  is  almost  utterly  impossible  as  long  as  the 
difference  between  the  duties  exists.  Nothing  short  of 
a  line  of  officers  posted  along  the  whole  length  of  the 
frontier,  and  almost  close  enough  to  touch  each  other, 
could  prevent  smuggling.  The  goods  marked  'transit' 
go  into  Spain  by  the  high  roads,  and  return  to  France 
by  the  innumerable  mountain  paths,  of  which  you  saw 


52  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

one  wben  you  came.  M.  Thiers;  has  done  all  in  his 
power  to  stop  our  movement,  but  without  any  success 
whatever.  What  he  has  stopped,  is  the  regular  inter- 
course between  the  two  countries.  From  the  Atlantic 
across  to  the  Mediterranean,  all  ordinary  traffic  be- 
tween France  and  Spain  has  been  paralyzed,  yet  you 
see  that  we  pass  fieely,  and  when  the  weather  is  not 
so  bad,  even  comfortably." 

The  general's  allusion  to  France  turned  the  conver- 
sation to  what  was  said  abroad  about  Carlism,  and  the 
reputation  for  cruelty,  which  iiad  been  gained  by 
the  Spanish  Legitimists,  caused  the  old  gentleman  to 
speak  ratlier  vehemently  on  that  subject.  He  simply 
called  "  miserable  lies  "  everything  that  has  been  said 
about  the  atrocities  committed  by  the  Carlists. 

"Our  policy,"  said  he,  "is  just  the  reverse  of  this> 
and  I  have  been  already  over  and  over  again  re- 
proached by  old  Carlists  for  being  too  lenient  towards 
the  Republicans.  What  we  want  is  to  attract  people, 
not  to  frighten  them.  I  have  given  strict  orders  that 
whenever  prisoners  are  taken  they  should  be  disarmed 
and  released,  as  we  neither  want  to  keep  them,  nor 
desire  to  shoot  them.  The  more  Republicans  we  re- 
lease, the  more  will  their  ranks  get  demoralized.  A  man 
fights  quite  differently  when  he  knows  that,  if  captured, 
he  will  be  executed.  He  prefers  then  to  die  on  the 
battle-field.  While  now,  by  releasing  prisoners,  I  in- 
duce them  to  fight  less  steadily  and  to  surrender  more 
easily.  What  does  it  matter  to  me  that  the  snme  man 
will  appear  three  or  four  times  in  the  ranks  against  my 
troops  ?  The  more  times  he  appears,  the  more  I  am 
sure  o^  his  being  a  bud  soldier." 


FIRST   VISIT  TO    THE   CAR  LIST  CAMPS.     53 

These  words  of  tlie  general  often  came  to  my  mem- 
ory subsequently,  when  I  saw  Carlists  fighting,  and 
when  I  witnessed,  as  in  the  case  of  Estella,  for  in- 
stance, over  six  hundred  prisoners  disarmed  and  sent 
under  escort  to  Pampelona,  so  as  to  protect  them  from 
an  attack  of  the  infuriated  NavaiTc  peasants  on  their 
journey.  And  the  policy  of,  in  this  way,  demoralizing 
the  enemy's  ranks  has  certainly  been  one  of  the  most 
successful  measures  the  general  has  adopted. 

"  Of  course,"  continued  he,  coming  to  this  subject 
over  and  over  again,  '•  I  cannot  be  answerable  for  oc- 
casional accidents  which  may  occur  now  and  then.  A 
chief  of  a  partida  volaiite  might  capture  sometimes  a 
few  militiamen  {3figueUtes)  against  whom  the  Carlists 
are  particularly  angry  because  they  are  voluntary,  not 
per  force  soldiers.  Such  men  might  be  sometimes 
killed,  without  or  with  the  sanction  of  the  commander 
of  the  band.  But  these  things  cannot  be  helped  in 
w^ar.  Then  again,  where  is  justice  when  people  speak 
of  us  being  murderers  and  assassins  when  we  shoot  a 
spy,  w^hile  the  Republicans,  when  they  torture  and 
massacre  men  whom  they  suspect  of  Carlism,  are  rep- 
resented as  merely  using  just  measures  of  severity. 
My  owm  brother,  the  Vicar  of  Pampelona,  has  now 
been  for  several  months  imprisoned  in  an  underground 
cell  of  the  citadel  of  that  town,  and  as  he  is  almost  as 
old  a  man  as  myself,  he  is  pretty  sure  to  see  his  life's 
end  there.  Dorregaray's  mother  and  sister  are  also  in 
prison  at  Santander,  and  when  in  the  skirmishes  any 
Carlists  are  taken  prisoners,  they  are  not  only  shot,  but 
their  bodies  are  mutilated.  People  talk  also  about  our 
enlisting  men   forcibly.     Well,  you  will   see  yourself, 


54  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

if  you  remain  here  some  time,  that  we  have  more 
men  than  we  can  possibly  make  use  of.  Why  should 
we  take  men  by  force  when  we  have  not  arms  enough 
to  give  to  those  who  come  willingly  ?  All  the  miser- 
able calumnies  spread  about  us  will  cool  down  by  and 
by  ;  I  am  perfectly  sure  of  that. 

"  There  are  one  or  two  points  more  in  which  public 
opinion  in  Europe  abuses  us.  One  is  our  stopping  the 
railway  traffic  in  the  North  of  Spain,  and  the  other  our 
alleged  attacks  upon  and  robbery  of  peaceful  travel- 
lers. With  reference  to  the  railway  traffic,  I  can  tell 
you  I  am  constantly  in  negotiation  with  the  same  M. 
Pollack  whom  you  have  seen  at  Bayonne,  and  if  we 
have  not  arrived  yet  at  any  result,  it  is  not  our  fault. 
I  told  him  over  and  over  again,  and  urged  him  to  use 
Pereira's  influence,  since  he  is  the  chief  proprietor  of 
the  railway,  for  re-establishing  the  traffic  upon  the 
condition  that  no  troops  or  war  material  should  be 
carried  by  rail.  If  Pereira  and  his  agents  cannot  ar- 
range that  matter  with  the  Madrid  government,  we, 
on  our  part,  cannot  permit  the  enemy  to  turn  against 
us  the  advantage  which  would  be  derived  from  rail- 
way communication.  As  to  our  attacking  and  robbing 
peaceful  travellers,  and  especially  women,  that  is  pure 
nonsense.  I  don't  believe  that  any  man,  and  certainly 
no  woman,  has  ever  been  molested  or  robbed,  except 
by  bandits,  wdio  may,  on  a  lonely  road,  attack  a  travel- 
ling party  and  give  themselves  out  as  Carlists.  All  I 
could,  do  was  to  give  orders  to  shoot  oft-hand  every 
man  who  could  be  proved  to  have  been  guilty  of  any- 
thing of  that  sort.  The  cure  Santa  Cruz  himself  is 
now  mider  sentence  of  death  for  having  disobeyed  the 


FIRST   VISIT  TO    THE   CARLIST  CAMPS.     55 

commander  of  his  province,  General  Lizarraga.  Sev- 
eral reports  had  been  circulating  that  Santa  Cruz's  men, 
who  formed  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  a  very  useful 
flying  party,  had  lately  committed  many  acts  of  vio- 
lence. How  far  this  was  correct,  I  have  not  yet  been 
able  to  ascertain.  I  believe  the  reports  to  have  been 
greatly  exaggerated.  However,  I  directed  Lizarraga 
to  incorporate  Santa  Cruz's  men  into  his  own  force, 
and  to  put  Santa  Cruz  himself  under  more  stringent 
control.  The  cure  refused  to  obey  this  order,  and  I 
have,  without  the  slightest  hesitation,  confirmed  Lizar- 
raga's  sentence,  by  which  Santa  Cruz  is  to  be  shot  as 
soon  as  he  is  caught."  ' 

While  we  were  thus  talking  about  the  now  sadly 
celebrated  cure,  our  carriage  was  driving  nearer  to 
Elizondo,  and  on  the  right  hand  side  of  the  road,  the 
general  pointed  out  to  me  a  little  village  high  up  in 
the  mountains. 

"Do  you  see  those  little  white  houses?"  asked  he. 
"  Well,  that  village  is  called  Lecaroz;  I  had  often  to 
stay  there  during  the  Seven  Years'  War,  and  for  the 
fact  of  my  having  been  there,  and  its  inhabitants  not 
having  communicated  to  the  Christinos  information  of 
my  whereabouts,  and  of  the  number  of  men  and  the 
quantity  of  arms  I  possessed,  the  whole  of  the  village 
was  burned  to  the  ground ;  and  the  male  population 
were  ranged  in  a  line,  and  every  tenth  man  of  them 
shot  by  Mina.  Now,  we  have  never  done  anything 
of  that  sort.  That  was  the  work  of  the  Liberals, 
supported  by  the  English,  the  Portuguese,  and  the 
French." 

Several  times,  also,  did  the   conversation  turn  to- 


66  SPAIN  AND    THE  SPANIARDS. 

wards  the  Pretender,  and  on  my  expressing  some  curi- 
osity as  to  what  sort  of  person  "  the  king  "  was,  Gen- 
eral Elio  spoke,  as  nearly  as  I  can  remember,  some- 
thing to  this  purpose  :  — 

"  He  is  intelligent,  very  kind-hearted,  and  of  un- 
doubted personal  courage,  but  I  am  unable  to  say 
whether  he  will  be  distmsjuished  as  a  statesman. 
Many  intelligent  men  have  failed  as  statesmen,  while 
many  persons  of  inferior  intelligence  have  proved  quite 
equal  to  the  little  statesmanship  lequired  in  a  sover- 
eign. Several  countries,  we  know,"  added  he,  with 
his  good-natured  smile,  "  could,  I  believe,  supply  illus- 
trations of  this." 

I  agreed  with  him,  but  remarked  that  he  was  not 
quite  justified  in  referring  to  constitutional  govern- 
ments, when  Don  Carlos  was  commonly  recognized  as 
the  representative  of  absolutist  theories,  and  his  answer 
was,  — 

"  You  are  greatly  mistaken  if  you  think  that  the 
king  ever  dreamed  of  absolute  power.  He  knows, 
and  his  counsellors  know  still  better,  that  absolutism 
is  impossible  in  our  days.  He  understands  also  the 
bad  policy  of  giving  any  secular  powder  to  the  clergy. 
The  legitimate  monarchy  in  Spain  will  not  only  rule 
with  the  advice  of  the  Cortes,  but  will  restore  all  the 
ancient  franchises  —  the  fueros^  as  we  call  them  — 
which  have  been  violated  in  turn  by  all  the  progres- 
sive parties.  It  will  support  religion,  of  course,  but 
will  not  go  a  step  beyond  what  the  religious  feeling  of 
the  people  requires  in  that  respect.  Our  enemies  say 
ice  will  overrun  the  country  with  monks  and  priests. 
This  is  simply  nonsense.     If  any  person  is  disposed  to 


FIRST   VISIT   TO    THE    CARL  1ST   CAMPS.     57 

a  monastic  life,  government,  it  seems  to  me,  has  as 
little  business  to  op}Dose  it  as  to  encourage  it.  There 
is  —  or  rather  was  —  among  our  peasantiy,  and  even 
among  our  educated  classes,  a  religious  fervor  that 
may  be  deemed  fanatical ;  and  if  our  monks  were 
fanatics,  it  was  not  because  they  were  monks,  but 
because  they  were  Spaniards.  If  I  should  call  a  true, 
good  Carlist  in  the  next  village,  and  tell  him  that  one 
of  our  detachments  had  been  beaten  somewhere,  he 
would  not  believe  me.  He  would  answer  that  God 
would  not  permit  Carlistas  to  be  beaten.  You  cannot 
make  such  people  less  fanatical  or  less  religious  by 
closing  the  monasteries,  as  the  Progresistas  did.  A 
foolish  and  unjust  measure  hke  that  could  never  have 
had  any  other  consequence  thnn  what  we  see  —  that  is, 
the  increase  of  the  very  fanaticism  it  strove  to  stamp 
out.  And,  say  what  you  may  against  the  monks,  if  you 
studied  the  Basque  provinces,  where  priests  and  monks 
have  always  been  powerful,  you  would  see  much  in  their 
favor.  There  is  not  a  single  peasant  in  these  piovinces 
—  man  or  woman  —  who  does  not  write  grammatically 
and  in  a  clear  hand  the  Basque  language,  and  many 
write  equally  well  the  Spanish  language  too.  Their 
good  health  is  the  result  of  their  morality.  Not  only 
are  there  no  l)eggars  here,  but  distressing  ]^overty  is 
almost  unknown.  Much  of  this  is  due  to  the  priest- 
hood, and  the  remainder  to  what  the  priests  help  them 
to  maintain  —  the  ancient  privileges  of  the  Basque 
provinces  and  Navarre.  We  enjoyed  here,  up  till 
Christina's  time,  the  most  pei-1'ect  self  government,  and 
never  knew  what  conscription  meant.  Over  and  over 
again  have  I  voted  here  as  a  landlord  of  Navarre  on 


58  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

a  footing  of  perfect  equality  with  the  poorest  of  my 
farmers.  You  are  surprised  at  the  strength  and  cour- 
age of  our  young  volunteers,  some  of  whom,  as  you 
have  seen,  are  scarcely  sixteen  years  old.  It  is  the 
result  only  of  their  pure  lives,  and  the  absence  of  that 
source  of  ruin  to  the  young  men  of  other  countries  — 
the  conscription,  with  its  barrack  life  and  all  the  vices 
of  large  cities.  It  is  not  amidst  the  fresh  air  and 
rocky  soil  of  these  mountains  that  people  can  ever 
get  demoralized.  Some  of  these  lads  have  never  been 
even  as  far  as  Pamplona  or  Vitoria,  and  all  they  know 
of  the  world  at  large  is  what  the  cura  and  the  muleteer 
tell  them.  I  can  assure  you  that  every  one  who  has 
lived  here  feels  as  certain  as  I  do,  that  neither  the 
intense  religious  feelings,  nor  loyalty  to  the  ancient 
monarchical  institutions,  can  ever  be  eradicated  from 
the  minds  of  the  people  in  the  Vasco-Navarre  prov- 
inces, unless  the  very  face  of  the  country  is  changed, 
and  these  mountains  are  levelled  to  the  ground.  I 
believe  that  all  the  Republicans  of  Spain  can  be  easily 
enough  made  Monarchists,  but  never  will  the  moun- 
taineers be  made  Republicans.  And  we  have  moun- 
tains and  mountaineers  everywhere  over  the  Penin- 
sula.'' 

As  a  matter  of  -course,  a  journalist  representing  an 
American  paper  could  not  leave  the  question  of  Cuba 
untouched,  and  I  had  to  bring  the  general  on  the 
subject. 

"  Well,"  replied  he,  "  it  is  difficult  to  say  anything 
positive  at  present.  Slavery,  of  course,  will  be  abolished, 
and  a  special  constitution  will  be  granted  to  the  colony. 
But  you  are  probably  anxious  to  know  whether   the 


FiJiST  VISIT  TO   THE    CARLIST  CAMPS.     59 

king  could  be  induced  to  part  with  any  portion  of  the 
Spanish  dominion  in  the  New  World.  To  this  I  must 
say  that  no  government  could  safely  venture  such  a 
policy.  Its  declaration  to  that  effect  would  be  its  own 
'death-warrant,  for  it  would  appear  to  balance  meaner 
considerations  against  national  feeling.  My  own  opinion 
is  —  and  I  believe  that,  to  a  certain  extent,  this  is  also 
the  king's  opinion  —  that  colonial  policy  is  simply  a  con- 
sideration of  debtor  and  creditor  accounts.  If  a  colony 
pays,  keep  it ;  if  it  is  a  loss  and  a  burden,  cut  it  adrift. 
The  English  colonial  disintegration  party  is  rational. 
But  the  subject  is  tangled  with  sentiments  of  nation- 
ality and  pride ;  and  you  see  that  even  the  English 
government,  so  strong  and  powerful,  dare  not  declare 
plainly  the  colonial  policy  in  which  they  seem  to  be- 
lieve. How,  then,  can  any  Spanish  government  be 
asked  to  do  so  ?  If  we  could  sell  Cuba,  we  should,  by 
a  stroke  of  the  pen,  restore  our  national  finances.  But 
to  make  such  a  sale  a  most  powerful  hand  is  needed, 
and  no  hand  can  be  powerful  —  and  in  Spain  less  than 
anywhere  —  unless  it  holds  plenty  of  money.  Thus 
there  is  a  vicious  circle ;  we  could  not  sell  Cuba,  save 
in  a  condition  that  would  make  its  sale  superfluous. 
This  is  a  vital  topic  with  us.  It  will  come  up  often, 
and  we  must  only  endeavor  to  prevent,  by  all  proper 
good-will  and  courtesy  towards  the  American  govern- 
ment, the  arising  of  any  pretext  for  their  occupying  the 
island." 


Though  when  we  started  the  general  threatened  me 
with  the  prospect  of  bad  lodging  and  bad  fare,  we  never 


60  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

saw  either  on  the  whole  of  o^r  journey.  He  was 
everywhere  received  witli  open  arms  by  the  popula- 
tion, and  either  at  the  houses  of  the  cures,  or  at  those 
of  some  leading  inhabitant,  comfoitable  meals  were 
invariably  waiting  lor  us ;  so  far  comfortable,  at  least, 
as  Spanish  cooking  allows.  At  the  house  of  a  rich 
proprietor  at  Elizondo,  among  others,  we  had  a  bottle 
of  sherry,  the  taste  of  which  I  still  remember,  and 
which  cannot  be  obtained  anywhere  except  in  those 
cathedral-like  vaults  called  JBodegas^  which  are  the 
great  attraction  of  every  traveller  at  Jerez. 

At  night  we  almost  invariably  returned  to  the  little 
palacio  of  Bertiz,  the  property  of  General  Elio's  sister- 
in-law,  which  is  situated  on  the  junction  of  the  San 
Estevan  and  Pamplona  roads.  The  capital  of  Navarre 
was  within  a  few  miles  of  the  place  where  we  thus 
took  our  night's  lodging,  and  half  a  dozen  of  German 
Uhlans  would  certainly  have  captured  us  there  most 
easily.  But,  in  the  first  place,  there  were  no  German 
Uhlans  at  Pamplona,  and,  in  the  second,  the  popula- 
tion around  Bertiz  would  never  have  even  inadvertently 
betrayed  the  temporary  residence  of  the  general. 

"  We  are  quite  safe  here,"  said  the  old  gentleman  to 
me,  on  the  first  evening  we  went  there  to  bed  ;  "  I  have 
drawn  some  curtains  on  the  road  from  Pamplona.  Two 
little  flying  parties,  numbering  about  twenty-five  men 
altogether,  but  commanded  by  two  very  old  and  expe- 
rienced ofiicers,  are  watching  the  road  at  a  distance 
of  a  few  miles  from  here,  and  should  any  suspicious 
move  be  made  by  the  enemy,  they  are  sure  to  awaken 
us  in  time.  For  the  little  risk  run  here  we  have  the 
advantage  of  good  beds,  and  of  suppers  without  the 
oil  and  garlic,  which  you  seem  to  dislike  so  much." 


FIRST    VISIT   TO    THE    CAR  LIST   CAMPS.     61 

And  really  our  beds  were  excellent,  and  garlic  and 
oil  were  banished  from  the  bill  of  fire,  except  in  that 
kind  of  thick  bread  soup,  which  is  quite  a  national 
supper  dish  in  Spain,  and  which  the  old  gentleman 
seemed  to  be  exceedingly  fond  of  But  it  was  quite 
easy  for  me  to  dispense  with  it,  since  the  supper  was 
always  so  copious  and  the  vegetables  so  delicious,  that 
the  most  capricious  appetite  might  have  been  con- 
tented. Never  shall  I  forget  the  little  artichokes,  not 
larger  than  a  middle-sized  fig,  and  melting  in  one's 
mouth,  outer  leaves,  brush-like  core,  and  all  else  in- 
cluded. One  could  scarcely  believe  it  to  be  the  same 
vegetable  that  gives  so  much  trouble  to  cook  and  con- 
sumer in  other  countries. 

During  the  day  when  the  general  was  transacting 
business,  I  -walked  about  the  villages,  watching  the 
country  life  of  Navarre  people,  imd  tlie  first  efiforts  of 
the  Carlists  to  organize  themselves  into  something  like 
an  army.  I  must  confess  that  the  |)ictu!es  I  saw  in 
these  and  subsequent  wanderings  contained  much  of 
ugliness,  dirt,  ignorance,  and  superstition ;  but  they 
contained  also  many  elements  of  that  sort  of  primitive 
virtue,  self-denial,  and  courage,  which  always  offer  the 
most  refreshing  sight  to  a  mind  intoxicated  and  be- 
wildered by  the  contemplation  of  all  the  blessings  of 
our  much  extolled  civilization. 


62  SPAIN  AND    THE    SPANIARDS. 


CHAPTER  HI. 

BIOS,    P ATRIA,    Y   EEY. 

THE  heading  of  this  chapter — God^  Fatherland^  and 
King  —  is  the  great  Carlist  motto,  and  tlie  watch- 
word to  which  every  peasant  of  the  northern  provinces 
of  Spain  answers  by  rushing  to  take  up  arms.  Patria 
phiys,  indeed,  a  much  less  important  part  in  it  than 
Dios  and  Hey^  for,  whenever  joyous  shoutings  are 
heard  among  Carlists,  Fatherland  is  seldom  mentioned. 
It  is  always  "  Yiva  Carlos  Setimo^''  "  Viva  la  Religion^^ 
"  Viva  los  Carlistas,''^  or  Viva  this  or  that  special  Car- 
list  leader.  Patria  means,  among  the  Carlist  volun- 
teers, as  a  rule,  their  own  particular  province,  often 
even  their  village  only.  Of  Spain,  as  a  whole,  they 
don't  know  much,  and  care  less  still  about  it.  Half  of 
these  men,  being  pure  Basques,  do  not  even  understand 
Spanish  at  all. 

"  Carlos  jSetimo^^  sounds  well  enough  when  cried 
out  by  the  enthusiastic  and  strong-voiced  lads,  but  it 
looks  rather  queer  when  represented  by  the  Pretender's 
crest  figuring  on  the  buttons,  arras,  and  colors.  It 
assumes  then  more  the  aspect  of  some  chemical  for- 
mula than  of  an^^thing  else,  for  it  is  written  in  the 
plain  way  of  C7.,  not  in  the  form  of  a  C  more  or  less 
picturesquely  intertwined  with  a  YH,  as  one  would  ex- 
pect it  to  be. 


DIOS,  P ATRIA,   r  RET.  63 

Of  the  present  Pretender  the  Navarre  and  Basque 
people  know  but  very  Httle.  It  is  quite  enough  for 
them  that  he  is  M  Rey^  and  that  his  name  is  Carlos. 
They  venerate  in  him  the  old  tradition.  And  I  am 
almost  sure  that  the  great  majority  of  them  firmly  be- 
lieve him  to  be  the  son  of  Charles  Y.,  under  whom 
their  fathers  —  in  some  cases  even  themselves  —  fought 
forty  years  ago.  Thus  to  general  causes  which  make 
these  mountain  tribes  rise  against  any  government 
established  in  Madrid,  is  added  the  intense  feehng  of 
hatred  against  those  who  inflicted  upon  the  Basque 
provinces  the  calamities  which  these  provinces  had  to 
bear  during  the  Seven  Years'  War.  So  strong,  indeed, 
is  this  feeling,  that  I  have  constantly  heard  the  Repub- 
licans called  by  the  name  of  Christinos^  which  means 
soldiers  of  Queen  Christina,  a  denomination  evidently 
preserved  from  the  former  war.  It  is  only  the  more 
civilized  portion  of  the  Carlist  volunteers  that  under- 
stands that  the  present  government  of  Madrid  has  noth- 
ing whatever  to  do  with  Christina,  and  accordingly  calls 
the  regulars  by  the  nicknames  of"  Negros,"  "  Liberales," 
"  Progresistas,"  and  the  like.  The  mutual  hatred  and 
jealously  amongst  all  the  Spanish  provinces  have  assumed 
in  the  Vasco-Navarre  parts  of  the  Peninsula  such  an 
intense  form,  that  nothing  short  of  some  Madrid  dic- 
tator, accepting  the  American  principle,  "Good  Indians 
are  only  dead  Indians,"  can  put  a  stop  to  Carlism. 
Zumalacarregui,  whatever  might  be  thought  of  his  hu- 
manity, was  certainly  not  very  wrong  when  he  made  up 
his  mind  to  give  no  quarter  to  the  enemy,  a  resolution 
to  which  the  "  Eliot  Convention "  put  a  stop.  lie 
seemed  to  have  accepted  the  rather  plausible  theory, 


64  SPAIN  AND  THE   SPANIARDS. 

that  the  more  enemies  he  killed,  the  fewer  would  re- 
main. Such  a  principle,  barbarous  as  it  may  look,  was 
at  all  events  sure,  if  acted  upon  on  both  sides,  to  lead 
to  a  speedy  conclusion  of  the  war,  and  probably  to  the 
final  settlement  of  a  pen<iing  question;  while  as  long 
as  the  war  is  continued  in  the  manner  it  has  been  car- 
ried on  since  Zumalacarregui's  death,  peace  will,  for  a 
long  time  to  come,  rem.iin  an  unknown  thing  in  the 
unhappy  Peninsula.  The  Carlists  are  perfect  masters 
of  the  whole  of  the  north.  They  are  well  organized 
into  several  distinct  army  corps.  They  have  cartridge 
manufactoi'ies,  and  they  are  manufacturing  arms  at 
Eibar  and  Placencia,  the  two  establisiiments  being 
capable  of  supplying  over  six  hundred  rifles  a  week,  a 
number  more  than  suflicient  for  keeping  them  in  a  per- 
fect state  of  readiness  to  meet  any  effort  on  the  part 
of  the  authorities  at  Madrid. 

The  sufficiency  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  coun- 
try for  tlie  demnnds  upon  them  piesents  a  somewhat 
questionable  point,  since  it  is  now  two  years  that  war 
has  been  carried  on,  with  the  products  of  a  compara- 
tively small  district.  But  in  the  first  place,  agriculture 
has  not  suffered  much  as  yet.  Bread,  wine,  and  cattle 
are  still  plentiful,  both  in  Navarre  and  in  Guipuzcoa, 
and  the  only  difference  is  that,  instead  of  selling  what 
the  peasant  can  spare  from  the  quantity  requisite  for 
liis  own  use,  he  is  now  compelled  to  give  it  to  the  Car- 
lists.  He  has  consequently  become  short  of  cash,  but 
he  is  a  man  who  does  not  want  much  of  it,  and  who 
will  endure  without  grumbling  the  privations  which 
the  v/ant  of  ready  numey  entails,  when  it  is  for  a  cause 
to  which  he  is  so  much  attached.     He  is,  besides,  con- 


DIOS,  PATRIA,   r  RET.  65 

stantly  encouraged  in  this  sentiment  by  the  priests,  by 
the  leaders  of  the  Carlists,  who  are  chiefly  landed  pro- 
prietors of  his  own  province,  and  by  all  the  lads  of  his 
village,  who  have  entered  the  Carlist  ranks,  and  who 
are  now  often  coming  on  visits  to  their  homes  to  tell 
long  stories  about  the  great  battles  they  have  fought, 
and  the  glorious  progress  the  great  causa  has  made. 

But  suppose,  even,  that  the  resources  of  Navarre  and 
Guipuzcoa  should  soon  get  exhausted ;  Biscaya  and  the 
country  along  the  Ebro  can  easily  support  the  Carlist 
array  for  twice  as  long  a  time  as  the  two  other  prov- 
inces. And  the  risings  in  Lower  Aragon,  Catalonia, 
and  Valencia  will  always  give  to  the  Navarre  and 
Basque  forces  the  possibility  of  changing  their  field  of 
operation  whenever  the  want  of  supplies  begins  to 
make  itself  felt  in  the  districts  now  supporting  them. 

No  one  could  form  anything  like  an  exact  idea  of  the 
extent  to  which  Carlism  is  rampant  all  over  the  north- 
ern provinces,  unless  one  has  travelled  through  them 
both  with  the  Carlist  column,  and  by  himself  alone. 
When  you  pass  with  troops,  a  suspicion  may  always 
arise  within  you  that  fear  makes  the  population  wel- 
come them.  But  during  my  long  wanderings  through 
the  north  of  Spain,  I  had  to  pass  over  and  over  again 
through  almost  every  village  of  the  four  provinces  with 
no  other  escort  than  a  little  Navarre  servant  boy,  and 
nowhere  did  I  meet  with  anything  but  hospitality,  to 
which  all  sorts  of  vivas  were  immediately  added,  when 
it  became  known  that  I  had  friends  among  Carlists,  and 
could  thus  be  fairly  suj3posed  to  be  a  Carlist  myself. 
Naturally  enough,  the  innkeepers  may  have  occasion- 
ally cheated  me,  or  robbed  the  food  out  of  the  manger 
5 


66  SPAIN  AND  THE  SPANIARDS. 

of  my  horses.  But  this  had  nothing  to  do  with 
hospitality — it  was  purely  matter  of  business,  trans- 
acted in  a  way  which  is  not  necessarily  peculiar  to 
Basques  or  Navarrese.  It  was  not  the  innkeeper's  fault 
that  I  had  money,  for  if  I  had  had  none  he  would  have 
given  me  the  same  fare  without  asking  me  a  penny.  It 
was  also  not  his  fault  that  maize  and  barley  had  risen 
in  price,  and  that  his  mules'  food  was  thus  rendered 
almost  dearer  than  his  own.  If  I  had  been  disposed  to 
go  to  the  alcalde  to  ask  him  for  rations,  and  to  draw 
for  them  upon  Don  Carlos's  future  exchequer,  I  should 
have  had  the  horses'  feed  for  nothing,  and  then  the 
innkeeper  would  not  have  touched  their  food,  for  he 
would  have  considered  it  Carlist  property,  which  is,  of 
course,  a  more  or  less  sacred  thing. 

The  enthusiasm  for  the  Carlist  cause  was  still  more 
emphatically  shown  by  the  women  and  children  of 
these  backward  regions.  Whenever  a  Republican 
corps  passed  through  a  village,  scarcely  a  child  was  to 
be  seen  in  the  streets.  They  had  all  hidden  themselves 
in  the  stables,  in  the  garret,  or  in  one  of  those  unin- 
habited rooms  of  the  first  floor  where  Indian  corn  is 
habitually  stored  in  these  countries.  It  was  evident 
that,  somehow  or  other,  these  little  things  had  been 
frightened  away  from  the  Republican  soldiers;  and 
they  knew  them,  for  sometimes  the  notice  of  the  ap- 
proach of  such  a  column  to  the  village  was  first  brought 
by  little  boys  and  girls  of  six  or  seven  years,  out  watch- 
ing their  pigs  and  sheep  somewhere  on  the  hills.  But 
at  the  approach  of  the  Carlists,  all  the  children  rushed 
out  to  the  entrance  of  the  village  with  cries  of  welcome, 
dancing  and  springing  in  their  delight,  and  meeting 


BIOS,  PATRIA,   Y  RET.  67 

the  column  with  all  sorts  of  joyful  manifestations.  And 
when  a  band  passed  some  isolated  farm-house  in  the 
mountain,  the  whole  of  the  family  w^as  sure  to  be  found 
at  the  entrance-door  ready  wuth  jugs  of  fresh  water,  or 
sometimes  even  glasses  of  wine,  for  the  wearied  soldiers. 
The  women,  both  in  Navarre  and  the  Basque  prov- 
inces, do  not  possess  much  in  the  way  of  carpets,  or 
colored  tissues  of  any  kind,  but  they  have  a  good  deal  of 
linen,  and  whenever  some  popular  Carlist  chief  is  known 
to  pass  through  a  village,  all  the  balconies  and  windows 
are  decorated  with  sheets  and  fringed  towels.  If  a 
woman  has  anything  like  chintz  curtains,  or  such  a 
luxury  as  light-red  or  blue  w^oollen  drapery  of  some 
sort,  they  are  sure  to  be  displayed  on  the  balconies,  and 
not  unfrequently  portraits  of  Don  Carlos  and  pictures 
of  various  saints  are  hung  out  as  additional  embellish- 
ments. If  the  entry  is  made  at  night  time,  the  whole 
village,  old  and  young,  rush  out  with  torches,  or,  at 
least,  with  what  serve  as  torches  —  bunches  of  lighted 
straw ;  and  the  village  stock  of  candles  is  sure  to  be 
exhausted  on  that  night,  for  in  every  window  there  are 
as  many  as  the  family's  purse  will  admit  the  purchase 
of.  If  a  caballero  be  thirsty  and  ask  for  a  glass  of 
water,  it  is  never  served  in  its  pure  and  simple  state. 
There  is  always  in  it  an  azucarillo,  a  kind  of  sweet- 
meat made  of  the  white  of  eggs  and  sugar.  It  costs  no 
more  than  a  farthing  perhaps,  but  a  farthing  is  a  con- 
sideration for  people  in  these  countries,  and  as  every 
woman  serves  a  good  many  azucarillos  in  a  day,  the 
whole  must  cost  her  quite  a  little  fortune.  Yet  you 
feel  at  once  you  dare  not  propose  to  give  her  anything 
in  return;  you  shake  hands  with  her,  and  that  is  the 
only  acknowledgment  she  will  accept. 


68  SPAIN  AND   THE    SPANIARDS. 

If  you  happen  to  be  belated  and  cannot  reach  the 
posada  (inn)  you  had  in  view,  and  are,  for  some  reason 
or  another,  compelled  to  stop  on  your  way,  you  can 
safely  knock  at  the  door  of  any  house  on  your  road, 
and  explain  to  its  owner  your  case,  when  you  are  cer- 
tain to  bo  made  as  welcome  as  if  you  were  an  old 
friend.  The  wife  will  be  set  at  once  to  prepare  whatever 
supper  she  may  have  provisions  for ;  your  bed,  if  often 
rough,  is  sure  to  have  clean  sheets  and  pillow-cases; 
and  when,  the  next  day,  you  ask  what  you  owe,  it  is 
seldom  more  than  six  or  seven  reals,  which  is  about 
thirty-five  cents. 

The  hospitality  which  any  Carlist  jefe  (ofiicer),  or 
any  cahallero^  who  caij  be  foirly  supposed  to  sympa- 
thize with  Carlism,  finds  in  the  cure's  house  is  quite  a 
matter  of  course,  for  cures  are  greatly  interested  in  the 
movement,  and  it  is  only  natural  that  they  should 
welcome  the  men  who  are  avowedly  supporting  the 
church ;  but  then  there  is  a  limit  to  everything.  At 
the  house  of  a  Basque  or  a  Navarre  priest,  Carlist  offi- 
cers find  not  only  a  cordial  welcome,  but  a  substantial 
meal,  lodgings,  food  for  their  horses,  and  everything  else 
they  may  want.  If  a  Carlist  column,  or  even  a  small 
band,  passes,  all  the  cures  of  the  village  are  immedi- 
ately on  foot  arranging  with  the  alcalde  for  quarters, 
rations,  stables,  and  all  that  is  so  anxiously  looked  for 
by  men  who  have  had  a  march  of  some  twenty  or  thirty 
miles.  Very  frequently  did  it  happen  on  my  journeys 
that,  within  five  or  six  minutes  of  my  alighting  at  an 
inn,  a  cure,  and  sometimes  three  or  four  of  them,  in- 
formed that  a  stranger  had  come,  would  arrive  at  the 
inn,  when  they  would  seldom  allow  me  to  remain  there. 


DIOS,  PATRIA,   TRET.  69 

I  had  to  go  to  the  house  of  the  senior  of  them,  if  there 
were  many,  and  give  all  the  news  I  had  to  impart,  re- 
ceiving in  return  a  dinner,  including  not  unfrequently 
trout,  spring  chickens,  ducklings,  and  even  English 
biscuits,  though,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  best  provis- 
ions were  invariably  spoiled  in  cooking  with  rancid 
oil  and  garlic.  A  stout  cure  at  Aranatz  was  particularly 
amiable,  and  he  had  greatly  improved  his  cuisine  under 
,the  influence  of  a  French  woman  his  brother  had  mar- 
ried. I  think  I  had  to  pass  that  village  about  half  a 
dozen  times,  and  on  each  occasion  he  caught  me,  and 
would  not  let  me  go  unless  I  not  only  had  a  dinner  or 
a  supper,  but  stopped  over  night  with  him.  He  had 
always  some  good  reason  why  I  should  not  proceed 
any  farther  on  the  day  of  my  visit.  And  what  struck 
me  as  particularly  remarkable  in  the  Navarre  and 
Basque  cures,  and  somewhat  different  from  the  customs 
of  a  good  many  other  clergymen,  was  that,  while  giving 
you  their  best  hospitality,  they  did  not  at  all  expect 
you  to  go  to  church  with  them.  If  you  happened  to 
turn  up  at  a  time  when  the  priest  had  to  officiate,  he 
would  do  his  best  to  make  you  comfortable,  w'ould  beg 
you  most  eagerly  to  excuse  his  being  compelled  to 
leave  you,  and  would  hurry  off  to  his  church,  where  on 
such  occasions  he  was  pretty  sure  to  despatch  his  mass 
or  his  vespers  with  a  somewhat  increased  speed. 

Twice,  or  three  times,  I  may  even  say,  these  cures 
saved  me  from  great  unpleasantness.  Preferring,  as  a 
rule,  high  roads  to  mountain  paths,  so  utterly  ruinous 
to  the  horses,  I  used  to  bring  myself  frequently  within 
a  short  distance  from  a  moving  Kepublican  column.  I 
knew,  of  course,  that,  being  a  stranger,  I  had  no  par- 


70  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

ticular  danger  to  apprehend,  except,  perhaps,  a  few 
days'  imprisonment  until  matters  could  be  cleared  up. 
But  the  cures  in  the  village  thought  that  on  being 
captured  I  was  certain  to  be  shot  like  any  Carlist,  and 
each  time  when  I  fell  into  any  danger  of  this  sort,  some 
cure  was  sure  to  turn  up  and  give  me  instructions  how 
to  escape  from  the  encounter.  On  one  of  such  journeys 
I  had  to  pass  the  Barranca  by  the  high  road  from 
Pamplona  to  Vitoria,  and  fell  between  two  columns 
which  were  in  the  course  of  operating  to  effect  a  junc- 
tion. As  I  was  not  alone,  but  with  tliree  or  four  Car- 
list  officers  in  full  uniform,  the  position  was  not  a  par- 
ticularly pleasant  one.  We  turned  off  from  the  high 
road  to  the  mountains,  but  were  still  under  the  dread 
that  the  skirmishers,  or  some  cavalry  patrol,  might 
catch  hold  of  us,  and  it  was  to  old  Don  Juan  Lopez, 
the  cure  of  Zuaz,  that  we  all  owed  on  that  day  our 
escape.  Watching  from  the  top  of  a  hill  the  movement 
of  the  columns,  and  seeing  us  turning  off  from  the  high 
road,  he  at  once  rushed  down,  and  ran  over  a  mile  to 
catch  us  —  a  task  which  must  have  been  all  the  more 
difficult  to  the  old  man,  as  we  were  already  beginning 
to  trot  sharply.  But  still  he  managed,  somehow  or 
other,  to  join  us,  though  in  a  state  of  indescribable  per- 
spiration, and  quite  out  of  breath.  Without  saying  a 
word,  he  seized  the  bridle  of  the  little  luggage  horse 
which  was  jogging  behind  us,  jumped  on  it,  took  the 
lead  of  us  all,  and  by  paths  which  we  would  otherwise 
never  have  ventured  to  enter,  not  only  carried  us  quite 
out  of  danger,  but  enabled  us  to  reach  the  place  at 
which  we  wished  to  arrive  about  a  couple  of  hours  earlier 
than  we  should  have  been  able  to  reach  it  otherwise. 


DIOS,   P ATRIA,    r  RET,  71 

The  organization  of  the  Carlist  army  is  very  pecu- 
liar. Of  discipline,  as  understood  in  regular  armies, 
there  is  next  to  none.  Soldiers  and  officers  stand  very 
much  on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality  and  familiarity. 
Volunteers,  sitting  in  the  inns,  do  not  always  rise  even 
when  a  general  enters.  If  a  Carlist  volunteer  knows 
an  officer,  whatever  his  rank  may  be,  he  shakes  hands 
with  him,  without  any  farther  salute.  The  three  body- 
guards we  had  on  our  journey  with  old  Elio  talked 
and  smoked  their  cigarettes  all  the  time,  not  unfre- 
quently  asking  the  general  for  lights,  or  dozed  as  if  they 
were  returning  from  a  pleasure  trip. 

When  off  duty  the  volunteers  are  very  unmilitary- 
looking.  For  an  hour  or  two  during  the  day  they  are 
underGjoins:  such  little  drill  as  their  officers  have  knowl- 
edge  enough  to  impart  to  them  ;  while  the  rest  of  their 
time  is,  as  a  rule,  divided  between  working  in  the  field, 
chopping  wood  for  their  landladies,  nursing  children, 
or  playing  at  ball. 

The  opinion  of  the  outside  world  concerning  the 
Carlist  army  was  always  very  bad.  Even  now  that 
their  number  has  become  so  imposing,  and  their  or- 
ganization has  so  very  much  improved,  there  still 
exists  an  under-current  of  belief  that  they  are  simply 
bands  of  cowardly  brigands ;  and  as  I  do  not  wish  to  be 
suspected  of  undue  sympathy  with  their  cause,  I  will 
here  leave  other  people  to  speak.  Writing  from  Tolosa 
on  November  the  9th,  1878,  the  special  correspondent 
of  the  London  Daily  News  said, — 

"  This  morning  the  general  quietness  of  the  town  of 
San  Sebastian  was  disturbed  before  daybreak  by  bugle 
sounds  in  all  directions,  and  General  Loraa's  column 


72  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS, 

of  three  thousand  men  with  four  guns  made  ready  to 
march  to  Tolosa,  some  sixteen  miles  distant,  to  convoy 
thirty  bullock  wagons  of  provisions  to  that  beleaguered 
town.  The  route  taken  was  by  Hernani  and  Andoain, 
places  but  too  well  known  to  the  British  Legion,  and 
where  its  heaviest  losses  were  suffered  during  the 
Carlist  and  Christina  war.  At  the  latter  place  we 
found  that  the  high  road  to  Tolosa  had  been  cut  by 
the  Carlists  near  Yillabona.  After  breakfast  the  col- 
umn left  the  convoy  at  Andoain,  and  marched  up  the 
mountains  on  our  left,  parallel  with  the  main  road,  in 
order  to  reconnoitre  the  country,  previous  to  bringing 
the  convoy.  First  went  the  Miguelites,  then  several 
companies  of  the  regiment  of  Leon,  and  then  a  com- 
pany of  that  of  Luchana,  some  three  hundred  and  fifty 
men  who  formed  the  advanced  guard.  Owing  to  the 
steepness  of  the  ground,  their  progress  was  slow ;  but 
on  arriving  at  the  top  of  a  plateau,  perfectly  free  from 
cover  excepting  a  few  tufts  of  uneven  ground,  a  most 
terrible  fire  was  opened  upon  them  from  the  Carlist 
rifles,  which  caused  severe  loss.  The  Republicans,  nev- 
ertheless, succeeded  in  advancing  to  the  base  of  the 
position  occupied  by  their  adversaries,  in  -which  they 
had  intrenched  themselves  by  breastworks  of  turf 
hastily  thrown  up.  Although  somewhat  less  exposed 
for  the  moment  than  on  the  plateau,  there  was  no 
choice  between  certain  death  from  the  storm  of  bullets 
or  scrambling  up  the  mountain  to  the  earthworks. 
The  latter  alternative  appeared  the  least  hopeless,  and 
up  the  brave  fellows  rushed.  The  Carlists,  not  a  whit 
behindhand,  leaped  over  the  parapet  to  meet  them,  and 
for  a  moment  the  day  was  doubtful.    A  few  of  the  Re- 


BIOS,  P ATRIA,  r  RET.  73 

publicans  did  not  like  the  look  of  the  affair,  and  began 
to  turn  back ;  but  their  officers  set  them  a  good  example 
by  placing  themselves  in  the  most  dangerous  points, 
and  even  firing  their  rifles  for  them.  A  few  opportune 
shells  helped  matters  most  considerably,  causing  the 
Carlists  to  return  to  their  intrenchment.  Encouraged 
by  this,  the  officers  shouted, '  Con  la  bayoneta  ! ''  —  words 
which  appeared  to  operate  with  magical  effect  on  both 
sides  ;  or  perhaps  the  fact  of  the  shells  being  very  well 
aimed,  and  the  Carlists  being  entirely  without  artillery, 
may  have  done  more.  At  all  events,  the  latter  retired 
hastily.  Inside  the  breastwork  the  ground  was  literally 
copper-colored  by  the  number  of  exploded  Berdan 
cartridges,  showing  only  too  plainly  how  severe  the 
firing  was  and  the  number  of  the  defending  party.  A 
sadder  proof  of  it  soon  manifested  itself  in  the  number 
of  killed  and  wounded  Republicans  ;  six  or  seven  hun- 
dred Carlists  must  have  been  in  the  earthworks.  Both 
sides,  as  usual,  behaved  bravely ;  but  on  passing  over 
the  ground  next  day  it  seemed  marvellous  that  any 
troops  could  have  succeeded  in  taking  such  a  position. 
So  strong,  indeed,  was  it  that,  if  its  defenders  had  been 
better  marksmen,  I  believe  they  would  have  succeeded 
in  holding  it  against  a  much  more  numerous  force. 
The  artillery,  no  doubt,  helped  greatly,  but  it  certainly 
did  not  fire  quite  as  much  as,  having  regard  to  the 
difficulty  the  advanced  guard  had  to  contend  with, 
might  have  been  the  case.  The  breastwork  was  by  no 
means  the  only  position  from  which  the  Carlists  were 
firing,  for  a  smart  shower  of  bullets  was  going  on  all 
the  time  from  their  right.  After  the  rest  of  the  col- 
umn had  passed  up,  destroying  the  intrenchment,  it 


74  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

ascended  the  mountains  still  higher,  throwing  out  a 
strong  lear-guard  towards  the  Carlist  right.  Here,  too, 
the  firing  was  hot,  but  the  artillery  from  the  very  crest 
of  the  mountain  played  heavily,  and  helped  the  rear- 
guard out  of  a  position  in  which  they  were  conducting 
themselves  very  gallantly.  The  descent  towards  Tolosa 
"Was  so  precipitous  that  only  mountaineers  would  think 
of  using  the  track  by  which  we  slipped  and  stumbled 
down.  A  blinding  storm  of  rain,  varied  now  and  then 
by  misty  clouds,  made  the  clayey  path  almost  impassa- 
ble and  invisible,  and,  whilst  compelled  to  proceed 
very  slowly,  evening  came  on,  and  the  darkness  in- 
creased our  difiiculties.  The  wounded,  some  of  whom 
were  on  the  horses  of  the  cavalrymen  who  had  dis- 
mounted, must  have  suffered  martyrdom,  and  those  on 
stretchers  hardly  fared  better.  Thankful  indeed  was 
every  one  to  find  himself  in  Tolosa,  beleaguered  as  it 
was." 

The  London  Times  correspondent,  whose  authority 
on  military  subjects  (as  that  of  a  captain  in  the 
British  Guards)  will  scarcely  be  questioned,  gave  the 
following  account  of  the  battle  of  Dicastillo,  fought 
on  August  25  :  — 

"The  Royalist  troops  consisted  of  three  thousand 
two  hundred  infantry,  a  handful  of  cavalry,  and  two 
guns.  The  enemy's  column  at  Sesma  was  five  thou- 
sand strong,  comprising  six  guns,  two  regiments  of 
horse,  besidcvS  foot  soldiers.  The  advantage  w^as  on 
their  side  as  far  as  numbers  were  concerned ;  but 
the  ground  leading  to  Dicastillo  was  very  difiicult  to 
attack,  and  thickly  planted  with  vines  and  olive-groves, 
utterly  imijossible  for  cavalry  evolutions.     At  six  A.  M. 


DIOS,   PAT R I  A,    r  RET.  75 

the  enemy  could  be  seen  in  the  misty  distance  ad- 
vancing through  the  defiles  of  the  mountains  in  long 
columns,  preceded  by  a  thin  line  of  cavalry,  searching 
the  country  in  their  Iront.  General  Elio,  who  com- 
manded the  Carlist  force,  soon  made  his  dispositions 
for  defence.  One  battalion  was  posted  in  the  little 
Plaza  of  the  Cathedral,  which  commands  a  view  for 
miles  around,  a  second  on  some  rising  ground  to  the 
rig:ht  front,  the  third  in  line  with  the  second  on  a 
neighboring  hill,  while  our  extreme  right  was  protected 
by  another  battalion  in  echelon  with  the  third,  and 
placed  on  a  position  so  steep  that  at  first  sight  the 
natural  defences  would  have  appeared  to  the  non- 
military  eye  sufficient  for  its  protection.  But  no ;  for 
it  was  the  key  of  our  formation,  as  some  hours  were 
destined  to  prove.  Nearer  and  nearer  the  enemy 
came,  until  glasses  were  no  longer  necessary,  and  artil- 
lery, cavalry,  and  infantry  could  be  plainly  discerned 
traversing  the  plain  towards  us.  .  .  .  Suddenly  the 
enemy's  column  appeared  to  detach  behind  a  distant 
promontory  on  a  new  line.  But  this  was  only  a  feint 
to  throw  the  Carlist  general  off  his  guard  ;  and  a  little 
later  a  fresh  change  of  position  brought  the  Republican 
troops  into  their  original  line.  Their  artillery  opened 
at  an  absurd  range,  the  shells  striking  the  ground  at 
least  a  mile  from  the  centre  of  our  defence. —  a  spot 
j^here  Don  Carlos  had  stationed  himself  with  his  suite. 
Another  five  minutes  and  a  second  shot  fell  about  two 
hundred  yards  from  where  the  king  was  standing,  and 
in  a  direct  line  with  him.  His  staft'  entreated  their 
sovereign  to  retire  a  little,  as  he  was  only  exposing 
himself  unnecessarily ;  but  nothing  would  induce  their 


76  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

leader  to  remove  until  his  presence  was  required  at 
another  point,  on  which  the  foe  were  advancing ;  for 
the  Republican  general,  Santa  Pau,  was  trying  to 
turn  our  right.  On  his  men  came  at  the  double, 
making  every  effort  to  gain  the  olive-groves  and  rises 
w^hich  formed  a  thick  network  in  front  of  the  ground 
where  our  fourth  battalion  stood.  Ammunition  was 
short.  Many  men  had  only  ten  rounds  each  in  their 
pouches,  and  some  even  less.  '  Attack  with  the  bay- 
onet,' was  the  word,  and  the  battalion  charged  down 
hill  at  their  Republican  assailants,  who  were  thoroughly 
out  of  breath  from  previous  exertions.  There  was  no 
collision.  The  enemy  fled  in  disorder,  and  the  two 
guns  placed  on  the  Carlist  right  played  with  great 
havoc  upon  the  foe  in  his  disordered  flight.  At  the 
same  time  two  companies  of  another  battalion  charged 
the  Republicans  from  the  centre  of  our  position.  The 
combatants  were  so  mixed  that  it  was  hard  to  tell 
friend  from  foe,  until  at  last  a  cheer  told  us  that 
the  Carlists  had  again  succeeded.  The  government 
troops  were  utterly  disorganized,  and  retiring  as  fast 
as  their  legs  could  carry  them.  However,  the  Repub- 
lican cavalry  then  interposed,  for  at  this  point  horsemen 
could  act,  and,  unsupported  as  they  were  by  guns,  pre- 
vented any  farther  pursuit.  But  the  day  was  over, 
and  as  I. write,  the  discomfited  government  troops  can 
be  seen  retiring  to  their  original  position  at  Sesma.  If 
Don  Carlos  had  as  much  cavalry  as  his  opponents, 
would  they  have  thus  escaped?  Experience  teaches  us 
otherwise,  and  until  the  Royalists  are  provided  with 
guns  and  horsemen  it  will  be  diflficult  for  them  to 
convert  a  defeat  into  a  rout." 


DIOS,  P ATRIA,    r  REY.  77 

I  have  only  to  add  that  I  know  the  gentlemen  who 
wrote  these  letters,  that  I  was  frequently  with  them  in 
the  field,  saw  how  careful  they  were  about  their  state- 
ments, and  have  not  the  slightest  hesitation  in  indors- 
ing every  word  they  say  here. 

Since  I  have  adduced  other  people's  descriptions  of 
Spanish  fighting,  I  may  as  well  have  recourse  to  their 
opinion  with  reference  to  the  moral  condition  and  the 
state  of  organization  of  the  Legitimist  volunteers. 
The  correspondent  of  the  London  Standard,  with 
whom  I  had  more  than  once  the  pleasure  of  sharing 
the  fatigues  and  privations  of  campaigning,  stated 
that,  — 

"Great  things  have  been  accomplished  in  the  teeth 
of  great  difficulties  ;  and  I  question  if  there  is  any  in- 
stance on  record  of  an  insurrectionary  force  having 
been  got  together  and  trained  to  present  a  martial 
appearance  and  stand  firm  in  a  period  so  brief." 

The  London  Daily  News  correspondent,  in  a  letter 
dated  September  1,  expressed  the  opinion  that,  — 

"It  is  wonderful  how  such  an  army  as  the  Carlist 
leaders  have  gathered  together  can  present  even  such 
an  appearance  of  discipline  as  it  does  in  the  face  of 
every  possible  difficulty,  and  more  especially  how,  now 
that  it  consists  of  such  a  formidable  body,  funds  can  be 
found  for  its  payment.  Possibly  the  men  may  be  con- 
tented with  rations,  and  live  in  hopes  of  receiving  their 
pay  all  in  a  lump  after  the  fall  of  some  large  town  shall 
have  yielded  its  coffi3rs  as  a  prize  of  war.  A  more 
cheerful  or  better  behaved  set  of  men  I  have  never 
seen,  and,  marvel  of  marvels^  not  a  single  instance  of 
anything  like  drunkenness  can  I  recall^  notwithstand- 


78  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPAINARDS. 

ing  that  the  victory  at  Dicastillo  and  the  fall  of  Estella 
were  double  events  which  might  well  have  led  any 
member  of  Tattersall's  to  bet  on  the  contrary." 

While  the  distinguished  officer  who  represented  the 
leading  English  journal  wrote,  on  August  19  and  28,  — 

"Undoubtedly  the  Royalists  are  each  day  becoming 
more  formidable,  and,  if  they  had  rifles  enough,  could 
arm  fifty  thousand  men  in  a  week.  The  latter  seem 
plentiful  enough,  and  each  day  the  authorities  are 
pestered  by  hundreds  of  volunteers,  eagerly  asking 
permission  to  enroll  themselves.  .  .  . 

"  The  Carlist  troops  do  not  reauire  much  time  to 
turn  out  in  marching  order.  A  man  is  considered 
equipped  when  he  is  provided  with  arms,  sixty  rounds 
of  bail  cartridge,  his  food  for  the  day,  and  a  spare 
shirt.  As  for  marching,  I  have  never  seen  their  su- 
periors, four  miles  an  hour  in  six  continuous  hours 
being  frequently  accomplished  by  them,  the  men  look- 
ing as  fresh  at  the  end  of  their  journey  as  when  they 
started.  The  rations  are  good  and  ample ;  in  fact,  a 
Carlist  receives  a  quarter  of  a  pound  more  meat  than 
the  British  soldier.  There  is  one  great  drawback, 
speaking  of  the  Royalist  soldiery ;  for  although  they 
are  all  volunteers,  who  love  fighting  for  fighting's 
sake,  and  are  as  brave  and  fine-looking  a  body  of 
men  as  a  general  could  wish  to  command^  they  hate 
the  idea  of  drill,  and  very  little  instruction  is  given 
them." 

As  to  the  Royalist  officers  he  makes  them  the  com- 
pliment of  saying  that  they  "are  not  the  bears  they 
are  represented  by  their  enemies  to  be ;  on  the  con- 
trary, they  studiously  try  to  avoid  giving  oiTence,  and 


DIOS,  P ATRIA,    r  REY,  79 

are  as  gentlemanly  a  set  of  men  as  it  has  ever  been 
my  good  fortune  to  associate  with." 


Though  the  Basque  and  Navarre  provinces  are 
considered  to  present  something  homogeneous,  there 
is  a  considerable  diiference  in  the  temperament  and 
character  of  the  population  of  these  provinces.  I  saw 
the  Navarre,  the  Guipuzcoa,  and  the  Alava  men  fight- 
ing on  several  occasions,  and  the  opinion  I  formed  of 
their  respective  merits  as  soldiers  is  this  :  All  of  them 
are  men  of  unlimited  courage,  to  all  appearance  per- 
fectly indifferent  to  life,  and  amongst  them  the  Alava 
men  must  have  the  palm  given  to  them.  The  reputa- 
tion which  they  acquired  under  Zumalacarregui,  who 
always  prefen-ed  them  to  any  other  men  in  the  north 
of  Spain,  is  certainly  not  unmerited.  They  will  stand 
any  amount  of  fire  with  the  steadiness  of  the  best 
regular  troops  of  any  country,  while  their  dash  would, 
I  believe,  exceed  that  of  a  good  many  of  the  latter,  on 
account  of  the  Alavese  being,  as  a  rule,  very  short  and 
very  light  men.  They  came  late  into  the  field  at  the 
present  rising,  yet  in  about  a  fortnight  after  three  of  their 
battalions  had  been  formed,  I  saw  the  men  of  one  of 
them  quietly  sitting  and  smoking  their  cigarettes  under 
a  fire  that  would  be  considered,  even  by  very  experi- 
enced troops,  as  an  unpleasantly  heavy  one.  They  are 
still  more  sober  than  the  Guipuzcoa  or  the  Navarre 
men,  and  remarkably  obedient  and  true  to  their  chiefs. 
Their  province  being  comparatively  a  small  and  poor 
one,  they  have  neither  the  haughtiness  of  the  Navarrese, 
nor  the  exclusiveness  of  the  Guipuzcoanos. 


80  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

After  the  Alava  men,  the  best  soldiers  seem  to  be 
the  Guipuzcoa  lads  ;  at  least  they  stand  fire  better  than 
the  Navarre  men,  and  are  the  most  capable  of  enduring 
fatigue  ;  but  they  are  not  so  plucky  as  their  neighbors, 
and  rather  heavy  for  guerilla  warfare.  Besides,  many 
of  them  have  the  disadvantage  of  not  knowing  one 
word  of  Spanish  —  a  circumstance  which  estranges 
them  to  a  certain  extent  from  the  rest  of  the  Catlist 
army.  Their  exclusiveness  is,  in  fact,  so  great,  that  up 
to  the  present  day  they  still  celebrate  the  annual 
anniversary  of  a  battle  in  which  they  fought  the  Navarre 
men  in  1321,  and  beat  them  with  sticks.  On  the  24th 
of  June,  of  every  year,  i3rocessions  are  accordingly 
organized  in  the  Guipuzcoa,  men,  women,  and  children 
equally  taking  part  in  them,  all  armed  with  the  homely 
weapon  which  served  their  ancestors  nearly  six  centu- 
ries ago  to  beat  a  neighboring  tribe  with  wh?cli  they 
ought  to  be,  to  judge  by  the  surface  of  things,  on  the 
best  possible  terms  at  present. 

If  the  Guipuzcoanos  could  be  taught  to  speak  Eng- 
lish, they  would  probably  become  most  sympathetic  to 
old-fashioned  Englishmen,  as  there  is  scarcely  any  other 
people  in  the  whole  of  Europe  so  inclined  to  stick  to 
their  national  customs  and  usages  as  the  Guipuzcoa 
men  are.  They  are  also  remarkably  hard-working 
people,  thoroughly  virtuous,  and  extravagantly  bigoted. 
A  great  number  of  such  of  them  as  succeed  in  picking 
up  Spanish,  and  feel  the  want  of  a  larger  field  for  their 
activity,  emigrate  to  South  America,  make  fortunes 
there,  and  return  back  to  their  native  villages,  with 
their  Guipuzcoanism  as  intact  as  is  the  Scottism  of  the 
Scotchman  who  after  having  travelled  twenty  years  all 


DIOS,   P ATRIA,    r  RET.  81 

over  the  world,  returns  to  his  native  lochs  and  hills. 
Contrary  to  their  neighbors,  the  Navarre  men  who 
have  once  gone  to  South  America,  if  they  return  home 
at  all,  j'enounce  all  their  old  sentiments  relating  to 
"  Dios,  Patria,  y  Rey,"  and  become  the  fiercest  Liberals 
and  Radicals.  A  considerable  number  of  such  enriched 
Navarrese  peasants,  known  in  their  own  country  under 
the  designation  of  "  Americanos,"  are  now  living  on 
the  French  side  of  the  Pyrenees,  on  account  of  their 
opinions  clashing  with  those  of  their  armed  landsmen. 
As  far  as  military  dash  goes,  the  Navarre  volunteers 
are  inimitable.  Their  bayonet  charge  is  something 
really  worth  looking  at,  and  surpasses  anything  the 
Zouaves  were  ever  capable  of  performing  in  the  days 
of  their  greatest  savagery  and  glory.  Truly  speaking, 
the  Navarre  men  do  not  understand  any  fighting  but 
that  with  the  bayonet.  The  rifle  seems  to  them  quite 
a  useless  arm,  and,  being  very  careless,  they  frequently 
lose  or  forget  their  pouches,  or  tear  them  through 
neglect,  and  drop  all  the  cartridges.  There  is  even 
a  belief  that  sometimes  they  purposely  throw  them 
away,  as  being  too  cumbersome  an  article  to  be 
carried.  Whenever  one  has  to  take  a  mountain  path 
by  which  a  Navarre  battalion  has  just  passed,  one  is 
sure  to  pick  up  cartridges  at  almost  every  step ;  and 
when  a  Navarrese  battalion  is  ordered  to  fire,  it  does  it 
so  hurriedly  and  with  such  aR  utter '  disregard  to  aim, 
that  the  spectator  becomes  convinced  that  all  these 
lads  wish  is  simply  to  get  rid  of  their  ammunition,  and 
to  hasten  the  moment  of  a  bayonet  attack.  To  stand 
fire  they  are  utterly  unable,  and  as  soon  as  it  becomes 
somewhat  hot,  no  human  force  will  retain  them  :  they 
6 


82  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS, 

must  either  go  forward  or  run  away.  And  this  running 
away  does  not  appear  to  them  as  anything  objectiona- 
ble. You  cannot  make  them  understand  that  it  is  a 
flight ;  in  their  eyes  it  is  simply  an  escape,  by  means 
of  which  they  get  the' best  of  their  enemy:  "for  the 
enemy's  evident  intention  was  to  slaughter  a  number 
of  us,"  would  argue  the  Kavarrese,  "and  through  our 
escape  he  got  snubbed."  This  view  seems  to  be 
implied  in  their  very  language,  for  the  process  of  with- 
drawing from  under  the  enemy's  fire  is  described 
neither  as  hidr  (to  fly),  nor  as  correr  (to  run),  but  as 
escaparse  (to  escape). 

The  general  brutality  of  the  Navarre  men  is  beyond 
anything  that  can  be  well  imagined  in  more  civilized 
countries,  and  the  manner  in  wliich  they  treat  their 
horses  will  be  an  eternal  check  upon  any  attempt  to 
introduce  cavaliy  service  amongst  them.  But  this  bru- 
tality is  by  no  means  wicked  ;  it  is  purely  animal,  and 
does  not  prevent  them  in  any  degree  from  being,  upon 
the  whole,  a  very  good-natured,  honest,  and  even  exqui- 
sitely polite  people,  as  long  as  you  are  polite  with  them. 

The  disgust  which  all  the  Yasco-Navarre  men  have 
for  regular  military  service,  from  which  their  fueros 
(provincial  charters)  always  kept  them  aloof,  is  so 
inveterate,  that  I  doubt  whether  they  will  ever  be 
induced,  under  any  circumstances  whatever,  to  form 
regular  regiments.  Anything  like  discipline  is  perfectly 
repugnant  to  them,  and  you  would  not  be  able  to 
compel  them  to  move  a  step  in  the  name  of  military 
duty ;  but  if  you  can  manage  to  stimulate  their  pride, 
or  to  make  them  believe  that  their  services  are  wanted 
for  the  defence   of  what  they  understand  to  be  the 


DIOS,   PATRTA,    T  RET.  83 

glory  of  their  province,  or  for  the  security  of  their 
homes  or  of  their  local  privileges,  there  is  no  amount 
of  danorerthat  these  men  would  not  unders^o. 

With  all  the  good  qualities  of  the  raw  Vasco- 
Kavarre  fighting  material,  one  could  not  easily  con- 
ceive a  more  unpleasant  position  than  that  of  a  sub- 
altern officer  of  the  Carlist  army.  Unless  he  is  per- 
sistently ahead  of  his  men,  he  is  not  only  disregarded 
and  insulted,  but  frequently  shot  at  by  them  during  a 
fight.  While  if  he  keeps  ahead  of  them,  he  is  often 
exposed  to  be  killed  or  wounded  through  their  care- 
less and  ignorant  way  of  handling  their  arms.  In 
almost  every  Carlist  engagement  one  or  two  officers 
are  killed  from  behind  by  the  blunders  of  their  own 
men,  and  at  the  battle  of  Udave  the  volunteers  of  a 
Navarre  battalion  shot  in  that  unintentional  w^ay  Carlos 
Caro,  one  of  the  bravest  and  most  accomplished  officers 
the  Carlist  army  possessed. 


One  point  more  remains  to  be  alluded  to  in  connec- 
tion with  Spanish  fighting,  and  that  is  Spanish  cruelty. 
Though  it  may  seem  ridiculous  to  speak  of  humanity 
in  butchery,  yet  unmistakable  manifestations  of  the 
most  sublime  as  well  as  of  the  most  wicked  sides  of 
human  nature  may  be  noticed,  even  in  a  thoroughly 
desperate  and  savage  fight.  I  had  some  field  experi- 
ence in  Turkey,  in  the  Crimea,  in  France,  and  in  Spain, 
and  I  found  the  great  mass  of  all  soldiers,  as  a  rule,  to 
be  wantonly  cruel  when  excited.  If,  on  the  one  side, 
instances  are  well  known  of  officers  and   men  having 


84  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

been  carried  out  of  the  midst  of  a  fierce  hand-to-hand 
struggle  by  some  courageous  and  kind-hearted  fellow, 
cases,  on  the  other  hand,  of  prisoners  being  butchered, 
and  wounded,  friends  as  w^ell  as  enemies,  finally  and 
brutally  despatched  to  a  belter  world  by  soldiers  unwill- 
ing to  expose  themselves  to  an  additional  danger  by 
carrying  them  away,  are  just  as  well  known  to  every 
one  who  has  had  to  take  part  in  or  closely  to  watch 
actual  fighting.  To  expect,  therefore,  that  semi-savage 
mountaineers  should  be  less  cruel  than  well-disciplined 
armies  are,  would  be  unreasonable  ;  but  from  what  I 
have  seen,  I  must  confess  I  was  astonished  at  the  com- 
paratively small  amount  of  cruelty  exhibited  by  them. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Republican  soldiers  were  in- 
comparably more  brutal  and  violent  than  the  Carlists, 
and  the  explanation  of  this  is  plain  enough.  While 
the  former  were  bent  on  the  extermination  of  their 
enemy,  the  latter  had  strict  orders  given  to  them  by  their 
leaders  to  exert  every  efibrt  in  treating  the  enemy  as 
kindly  as  possible,  with  a  view  to  gain  his  sympathy, 
and  to  make  him  desert  his  ranks.  During  the  whole 
of  my  stay  amongst  them,  I  knew  of  only  one  instance 
of  wholesale  extermination,  viz.,  a  small  detachment 
taken  at  Cirauqui.  Some  Voluntarios  de  la  Lihertad 
were  defending  that  place.  The  Carlists  took  it  after 
a  couple  of  hours-  fighting,  and  the  garrison,  reduced  to 
something  like  thirty-five  or  forty  men,  had  to  surrender. 
They  were  all  locked  up  in  the  village  church,  and  a 
partida  volante  was  left  in  the  place  to  guard  them,  as 
the  column  which  captured  the  fort  had  immediately 
to  march.  It  would  appear,  however,  that  the  prison- 
ers, who   were   all  ultra-Republicans,  had   been   very 


DIOS,  PATRIA,    r  RET.  85 

violent  with  the  population  of  the  place  when  it  was 
in  their  hands ;  consequently,  as  soon  as  the  first 
excitement  of  the  fight  was  over,  and  the  villagers 
began  to  return  to  their  homes,  they  all  congregated 
round  the  church,  and  demanded  the  death  of  the  pris- 
oners. Things  went  on  so  far  that  the  peasant  men 
and  women  assailed  the  doors  of  the  church,  and  the 
commander  of  the  partida  volante  lost  all  control  over 
his  force,  who  joined,  of  course,  the  villagers.  Finally, 
the  doors  and  windows  were  broken  open,  the  church 
invaded,  and  all  the  prisoners  slaughtered,  except  two 
or  three  who  managed  to  escape  more  or  less  severely 
wounded. 

But  if  such  monstrosities  are  on  the  whole  but  rarely 
perpetrated  by  Carlists,  they  are  of  more  frequent  oc- 
currence on  the  Republican  side.  In  Catalonia,  after 
the  battle  of  Alpens,  there  took  place  a  pillage,  slaughter, 
and  rapine  of  a  nature  to  preclude  description.  Old 
men  and  women  were  tied  by  the  hands  and  legs,  their 
daughters  violated  by  the  Republicans  under  the  par- 
ents' very  eyes,  and  afterwards  the  whole  family  shot 
or  pierced  with  bayonets,  and  their  houses,  with  the 
dead  bodies  in  them,  burnt  to  the  ground.  But  justice 
requires  to  add  here  that  the  regular  Republican  troops 
are  not  by  any  means  so  bad  in  this  respect  as  the  so- 
called  Miguelites^  Yoluntarios  de  la  Libertad^  and  sim- 
ilar militia  bodies. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  a  good  deal  of  unnecessary 
suffering  is  inflicted  here  on  both  sides  through  igno- 
rance and  through  want  of  material  means  ;  but  that  is 
not  cruelty,  properly  speaking.  I  saw,  for  instance, 
both  Republicans  and  Carlists,  severely  wounded,  lying 


86  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

more  than  twenty-four  hours  in  the  field  without  being 
attended  to.  But  tliere  were,  then,  neither  ambulances 
nor  surgeons,  and  when  there  were  surgeons,  some  of 
them  dressed  the  wounds,  as  it  were,  on  the  salad  prin- 
ciple, with  salt  and  vinegar.*  The  manner  in  which 
the  bodies  of  the  dead  are  buried  is  perfectly  revolting 
to  a  man  accustomed  to  see  this  duty  performed  with 
a  certain  amount  of  reverence ;  but  it  is  well  known  that 
nothing  is  so  much  disregarded  in  Spain  as  a  dead 
man ;  consequently  the  custom  of  a  perfectly-naked 
body,  being,  without  further  ceremony,  shot  into  a 
ditch  out  of  coffin  which  has  served  the  same  purpose 
on  a  good  many  occasions,  and  will  probably  do  so  on 
many  more,  must  be  looked  upon  rather  as  a  national 
custom  than  anything  else. 

A  good  deal  has  also  been  written  about  the  objec- 
tionable use  which  the  Carlists  mAke  of  petroleum,  but 
to  set  fire  to  the  enemy's  camps  and  intrenchments  was 
at  all  times  a  customary  practice.  Had  the  Carlists 
possessed  big  guns,  they  would  probably  not  have 
made  use  of  the  English  garden  pumps  and  the  barrels 
of  petroleum,  of  which  they  now  sometimes  avail  them- 
selves ;  for,  after  all,  the  use  of  petroleum,  as  a  means 
of  destruction,  is  neither  particularly  convenient  nor 
efiicacious.     In  the  whole  of  my  experience  with  the 

*  Last  year  matters  have  improved  through  the  establishment 
of  several  large  ambulances.  The  Legitimist  members  of  the 
Paris  Rod  Cross  sent  out  a  couple  of  gentlemen  with  about  a, 
£1,000  of  money  and  some  medical  stores,  while  several  rich 
Spanish  ladies  began  to  exert  their  efforts  in  organizing  the  in- 
terior service  of  the  two  or  three  hospitals  which  had  thus  been 
brought  into  existence. 


DIOS,   PATRIA,    r  RET.  87 

Carlists,  I  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  use  of 
petroleum  only  once,  at  the  siege  of  Viana.  On  the 
30th  of  August,  1873,  two  battalions,  with  four  can- 
nons, under  the  command  of  General  Olio,  entered  the 
village  situated  about  three  miles  north  of  the  bridges 
across  the  Ebro  near  Logrono,  and  began  the  siege  of 
two  churches  and  an  old  tower,  which  were  fortified 
and  garrisoned  by  some  thirty  Hussars  of  Pavia,  and 
about  a  hundred  and  twenty  National  Guards.  For 
nearly  thirty-six  hours,  four  cannons  and  fifteen  hun- 
dred rifles  were  desperately  firing  upon  the  thick  walls 
of  these  ancient  edifices,  without  producing  any  effect 
whatever.  A  Republican  column  at  last  showing  it- 
self from  across  the  river,  the  Carlists  saw  that  the  loss 
of  any  more  time  or  cartridges  would  be  utterly  fatal 
to  them,  and,  consequently,  brought  up  a  little  pump 
and  a  few  barrels  of  petroleum,  the  squirting  of  which 
had  scarcely  begun  when  the  garrison  hoisted  the  white 
flag,  and  expressed  its  preference  to  surrender,  to  the 
prospect  of  being  burnt  alive. 

Upon  the  whole,  an  unconcerned  observer  cannot 
exactly  see  in  what  way  the  use  of  petroleum  is  more 
objectionable  in  such  a  case  than  the  use  of  mines  or 
torpedoes,  universally  admitted  to  be  a  legitimate 
means  of  attack  and  defence.  The  result  of  the  com- 
bat on  that  occasion  was  not  the  worse  on  account  of 
the  use  of  petroleum,  for  the  garrison  was,  as  usual, 
disarmed  and  sent  across  the  Ebro  to  Logrono,  all  the 
fortifications  of  the  churches  and  the  tower  destroyed, 
and  the  village  of  Viana  transformed  into  a  place  gar- 
risoned by  a  small  flying  column  of  Carlists,  instead  of 
a  similar  column  of  Republicans. 


88  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

DON   CARLOS,   HIS   WIFE,   AND    HIS   VIEWS. 

THE  present  pretender  to  the  throne  of  Spain, 
styled  by  his  followers  Charles  VH.,  and  by  the 
world  at  large  Don  Carlos  de  Bourbon,  Duke  of 
Madrid,  is  twenty-six  years  of  age,  having  been  born 
in  Austria  in  March,  1848.  He  is  a  powerful-looking 
man,  about  six  feet  one,  and  in  his  frank  but  somewhat 
curt  manner  reminds  one  of  the  Emperor  Alexander  of 
Russia,  when  he  was  some  twenty-five  years  younger. 
His  face,  since  he  began  to  wear  a  full  beard,  has  be- 
come quite  handsome,  though  a  slightly  slobbering 
aspect  of  his  mouth,  and  the  deficiency  of  teeth,  he- 
reditary in  the  Spanish  Bourbon  house,  not  being  in 
harmony  with  his  manly  physical  appearance,  spoils 
the  first  pleasing  impression.  He  is  easy  of  access,  and 
without  any  trace  of  haughtiness.  When  seen  on 
horseback  at  some  distance,  especially  when  saluting 
people  and  frankly  taking  ofi"  his  Basque  cap,  he  has 
something  picturesque  about  him.  His  bearing  in  pri- 
vate life  resembles  that  of  the  younger  sons  of  the 
English  nobility  who  have  entered  the  professions. 
Like  them,  he  seems  to  have  the  capacity  of  enduring, 
for  a  while,  any  amount  of  hardship  with  great  serenity 
of  temper.     Of  the  sovereign,  the  statesman,  or  the 


DON  CARLOS,  HIS   WIFE,  AND  HIS   VIEWS.  89 

warrior,  there  is  absolutely  nothing  in  hira.  But  he  is 
very  fond  of  playing  the  part  of  a  king  —  that  is  to 
say,  of  thou-ing  everybody  in  the  old  fashion  of  Span- 
ish kings,  not  excluding  even  his  councillors,  some  of 
whom  are  thrice  his  age,  and  of  surrounding  himself 
with  a  large  number  of  chamberlains,  aides-de-camp, 
secretaries,  and  similar  people,  —  all  of  whom  have  no 
other  merit  or  duty  than  that  of  flattering  his  pride. 
I  saw,  myself,  genuine  Spanish  noblemen  carrying 
away  slops  after  Don  Carlos  had  washed  himself,  and 
busily  engaged  in  seeing  that  his  top-boots  and  spurs 
were  properly  polished.  He  is  undoubtedly  a  religious 
man ;  but  there  is  much  less  bigotry  about  him  than  is 
generally  supposed,  and,  for  all  I  could  observe,  the 
Spanish  clergy  do  not  seem  to  exercise  any  undue  in- 
fluence on  his  mind.  In  fact,  I  have  seen  him  marching 
for  weeks  without  having  a  single  cure  on  his  stafi"; 
but,  in  every  village  he  comes  to,  he  goes  first  of  all  to 
church,  and  pays  a  visit  to  the  local  priest.  Like  the 
majority  of  Spaniards,  he  is  a  bad  horseman,  and  in 
about  a  month's  time  I  saw  him  ruin  three  excellent 
horses.  At  the  same  time,  he  evidently  imagines  that 
he  looks  a  fine  cavalier  with  his  glistening  black  beard, 
his  dark-blue  hussar  uniform,  his  stars  on  the  breast, 
his  red  trousers,  his  high  circus  boots,  and  his  red  cap 
with  the  gold  tassel.  His  political  notions  seem  to  be 
of  a  very  unsettled  character.  At  all  events,  each  time 
I  happened  to  talk  to  him,  or  listen  when  he  talked  to 
some  one  else  on  political  subjects,  1  was  never  able  to 
make  out  what  was  the  substance  of  his  views.  Some- 
times he  seemed  quite  a  commonplace  liberal  of  our 
own  day ;  at  other  times  his  utterances  appeared  to  be 


90  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

the  produce  of  the  old-fashioned  traditions  of  Spanish 
absolutism.  On  the  whole,  I  think,  he  would  make  a 
pretty  fair  constitutional  king,  if  properly  restricted  by 
law;  for,  having  been  educated  in  Europe,  and  having 
lived  constantly  under  European  influence,  he  has  un- 
consciously imbibed  the  political  ideas  of  our  age. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  being  in  his  private  life  under 
the  influence  of  his  family  traditions,  and  basing  his 
rights  upon  worn-out  ideas,  he  has  naturally,  along 
with  modern  notions,  others  w^hich  would  much  better 
suit  the  seventeenth  than  the  nineteenth  century.  In 
the  etiquette  he  likes  to  observe  at  his  wandering  court, 
and  in  the  titles  and  court  appointments  he  distributes, 
these  weaknesses  come  very  clearly  to  light.  As  an 
individual,  he  is  brave  and  kind-hearted;  he  is  an  ex- 
cellent father,  and  is  polite  and  amiable  to  everybody. 
He  sleeps  much,  and  smokes  much,  and  is  rather  "hen- 
pecked "  by  Dona  Margarita,  Duchess  of  Parma,  whom 
he  married  in  February,  1867,  and  by  whom  he  has  two 
daughters  and  a  son,  the  eldest.  Infanta  Blancn,  being 
five  years  old,  and  the  youngest.  Infanta  Elvirn,  two 
years.  His  son.  Infante  Jaime-Charles,  who,  according 
to  his  parents'  beliefj  will  have  some  day  to  play  the 
role  of  Charles  VIIL,  was  born  on  the  27th  of  June, 
1870. 

Doiia  Margarita  has  tlie  reputation  of  being  a  very 
clever  woman.  Handsome  she  is  certainly  not,  al- 
though in  her  stature,  fair  hair,  and  blue  eyes,  there  is, 
on  the  whole,  something  rather  attractive.  But  surely 
no  one  would  take  her  for  a  queen  of  Spain.  She  looks 
much  more  like  a  German  or  an  English  middle-class 
lady,  of  that  slim  and  delicate  appearance  so  often  met 


DON  CARLOS,  HIS   WIFE,  AND  HIS  VIEWS.  91 

with  in  northern  countries  amongst  women  who  marry 
at  an  early  age,  and  have  more  children  than  they  ought 
to  have.  Being  a  year  older  and  much  richer  than  her 
husband,  and  of  a  more  decided  cast  of  mind,  she 
exercises,  undoubtedly,  great  influence  over  Don  Car- 
los; and,  if  she  had  not  herself  been  at  times  under 
the  influence  of  a  number  of  Jesuits  and  petty  cour- 
tiers, her  counsels  and  views  would  probably  have  had 
upon  Don  Carlos  a  salutary  influence.  At  all  events, 
she  reads  much  more  than  her  husband,  and  is  far  more 
accomplished.  Up  to  about  a  year  ago,  she  was  almost 
invariably  living  near  Geneva,  in  the  chateau  called 
Bocage ;  but  some  of  the  over-zealous  Carlists  having 
compromised  her  by  the  storing  of  arms  in  her  resi- 
dence, she  was  ordered  by  the  Swiss  authorities  to 
leave  the  country,  and  had  to  seek  refuge  in  France. 
When  Don  Carlos  entered  into  Spain,  she  took  up  her 
present  residence  at  Bordeaux,  and  the  reports  as  to 
her  having  crossed  the  frontier  were  utterly  destitute 
of  foundation.  She  tried  lately  to  remove  to  Pau,  and 
took  a  house  there,  but  the  French  government  inti- 
mated to  her  tliat  she  could  not  be  allowed  to  reside  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  Pyrenees. 

It  was  in  the  isolated  chateau  of  St.  Lon,  in  the  Landes, 
that  I  first  saw  Don  Carlos  in  April,  1873.  He  was  then 
hiding  himself  from  the  French  police,  and  changing  his 
abode  almost  every  week,  under  the  protection  of  the 
hospitable  landed  proprietors  of  the  south  of  France. 
To  get  at  Don  Carlos  was  a  very  difiicult  task;  for,  if 
not  alarmed  himself,  his  councillors  and  courtiers  were 
always  afraid  of  some  act  of  treachery ;  but  the  "  inter- 
viewing" instructions  of  my  paper  were  too  stringent 


92  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS, 

for  me  to  let  him  off  without  an  ordeal  of  this  sort ; 
and  I  speiat  nearly  a  month  at  Bayonne  and  about  the 
frontier  trying  to  meet  with  people  who  could  manage 
to  procure  me  this  interview.  Yet  all  my  efforts  were 
vain  until  I  became  acquainted  with  General  Elio,  and 
proved  lucky  enough  to  inspire  hira  with  the  confidence 
that  I  had  no  intention  either  to  assassinate  or  even  to 
betray  Don  Carlos. 


On  the  Bayonne-Pau  railway  line  is  a  station  called 
Peyrehorade;  and  about  two  hours'  drive  from  that 
station  is  situated  the  chateau  of  M.  de  Pontonx,  where 
the  interview  was  to  take  place  on  the  11th  of  April, 
at  eleven  o'clock  at  night.  The  arrangement  was,  that 
I  should  start  from  Bayonne  by  the  last  train  to  Pey- 
rehorade, and  call  there  upon  the  cure,  who  would  serve 
me  as  a  guide,  the  name  of  the  residence  not  having 
been  disclosed  to  me  at  that  time.  On  my  reaching 
Peyrehorade,  I  found  the  cure  at  church,  it  being  Good 
Friday;  but  a  comfortable  carriage  was  in  readiness  to 
drive  me  to  a  place,  of  which  I  should  not  even  now 
have  known  the  name  if  the  young  M.  de  Pontonx  had 
not  told  me,  a  few  months  later,  that  it  was  at  his 
chateau  that  I  paid  the  visit.  The  precautions  were 
evidently  well  taken  for  my  not  betraying  the  resi- 
dence of  the  prince;  for  I  could  not  even  see  the  road 
through  which  I  drove,  the  carriage  having  no  lanterns, 
the  coachman  having  recommended  me  not  to  pull 
down  the  windows,  and  the  night  being  so  dark  that 
I  wondered  all  the  time  how  he  could  find  his  way. 
In  about  two  hours,  we  stopped  before  a  gate,  which 


DON  CARLOS,  HIS   WIFE,  AND  HIS   VIEWS.  93 

was  opened  only  after  some  parleying,  and  then  drove 
through,  a  park  to  the  entrance  of  the  residence. 

Brigadier  Iparraguirre,  military  secretary  of  the 
prince,  was  waiting  on  the  doorsteps  when  the  car- 
riage drew  into  the  court-yard.  He  was  evidently 
watching  lest  some  police  agent  or  any  other  unasked- 
for  person  should  appear:  but  seeing  the  familiar  car- 
riage and  coachman,  and  hearing  that  I  was  the  person 
to  whom  the  audience  had  been  granted,  he  showed  me 
at  once  through  several  rooms  to  the  chamber  occupied 
by  Don  Carlos.  A  cheerful  fire  burned  in  an  old-fash- 
ioned grate,  and  the  apartment  was  upholstered  with 
quaint-looking  antique  furniture.  Don  Carlos  entered 
the  room  almost  immediately,  accompanied  by  General 
Elio,  shook  my  hand  cordially,  abd  paid  some  compli- 
ments to  the  journal  I  represented.  Some  preliminary 
conversation  of  a  general  character  then  ensued,  but  as 
soon  as  the  prince  sat  down,  and  lighted  a  cigarette, 
offering  me  one,  both  Elio  and  Iparraguirre  retired 
from  the  room. 

"What  impression  has  been  made  on  you  during 
your  journey  through  the  Carlist  camps  ? "  was  his 
first  question.  I  answered  that  my  impressions  were 
on  the  whole  favorable,  but  referred  to  the  imperfect 
armament  of  some  of  the  partidas  (bands),  and  the 
conversation  at  once  assumed  a  practical  relation  to 
the  Carlist  prospects  in  general. 

*'  Ah,  you  must  keep  in  view  the  almost  insuperable 
difficulties  which  we  have  had  to  contend  with,"  said 
the  prince.  "The  movement  began  only  in  the  month 
of  December.  General  Olio  crossed  the  frontier  to 
Spain  about  Christmas  last  with  twenty-three  unarmed 


94  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

men.  He  disinterred  three  hundred  old  muskets,  which 
had  been  buried  in  the  neighborhood,  and  with  these 
armed  his  first  detachment.  In  Catalonia,  the  move- 
ment began  earlier,  and  there  the  progress  was  more 
rapid.  You  have  no  conception  of  the  obstacles  which 
are  put  in  the  way  of  our  transporting  arms  across  the 
frontier.  The  cost  of  conveyance  causes  a  great  in- 
crease of  expense,  and  but  for  the  liearty  assistance 
which  was  given  to  us  by  the  nobility  of  the  south  of 
France,  we  could  never  have  achieved  what  we  have 
done.  And  then,  what  has  not  been  said  of  us?  We 
have  been  called  *  brigands,'  'assassins,'  'plunderers  of 
the  peasantry,'  'kidnappers,'  and  what  not;  but  you 
have  yourself  seen  how  false  such  reports  are.  You 
have  seen  how  thoroughly  the  population  of  the  vil- 
lages is  with  us.  If  I  had  a  hundred  thousand  rifles,  I 
could  have  a  hundred  thousand  men  in  a  few  days.  It' 
is  bitter  to  me,  personally,  to  be  restrained  as  I  am; 
compelled  idly  to  sit  here,  while  my  followers  are  en- 
during so  many  hardships  and  risking  their  lives  for  my 
cause ;  but  my  advisers  keep  me  like  a  prisoner  of  state. 
They  say  my  entering  Spain  would  do  harm  only,  as 
they  are  not  yet  ready  for  active  operations  on  my 
behalf." 

The  conversation  then  turning  to  politics,  Don  Car- 
los said,  — 

"  The  political  feature  of  the  case  is  as  little  known 
abroad  as  is  the  other,  the  military  part  of  the  Legitimist 
movement.  No  lawyer,  Spanish  or  foreign,  has  ever 
disproved  my  right  to  the  throne  of  Spain.  The  act 
by  which  the  throne  was  given  to  Isabella,  was  simply 
a  violation  of  the  organic  laws  of  the  kingdom.     My 


DON  CARLOS,  HIS    WIFE,  AND  HIS   VIEWS.   95 

grandfather  defended  his  right,  sword  in  hand.  He 
was  not  vanquished,  but  was  betrayed  by  the  infa- 
mous Maroto.  When  the  right  to  the  throne  devolved 
on  me,  I  did  all  in  my  power  to  confine  the  contest 
within  the  walls  of  the  Parliament  house.  I  succeeded 
in  obtaining  the  support  of  not  less  than  eighty-three 
deputies,  but  during  the  last  elections  Carlist  voters 
and  Carlist  deputies  were  shot  at  and  stabbed,  and 
nothing  remained  for  us  but  a  resort  to  arms.  Any 
American  or  English  party  placed  in  the  same  position 
would  have  acted  in  the  same  way.  I  know  that  the 
Anirlo-Saxon  race  in  the  New  World  as  well  as  in  the 
Old,  is  so  great  because  it  never  hesitates  to  take  up 
the  sword  when  right  is  invaded.  They  do  not  fear 
civil  war  when  they  believe  they  are  in  the  right. 
Why  should  we  fear?  " 

On  my  observing  that  the  cause  of  the  hostile  criti- 
cism of  the  world  on  Carlism  was  not  because  Carlism 
fought,  but  because  people  were  afraid  lest  its  victory 
should  re-establish  fading  absolutist  theories  in  govern- 
ment and  ultramontanism  in  religion. 

"  1  have  never  given  any  reason  to  believe  that  after 
my  accession  to  the  throne,"  said  Don  Carlos,  "  religion 
would  be  permitted  to  interfere  with  politics,  or  poli- 
tics with  religion.  I  greatly  value  the  influence  of  the 
priesthood  ;  I  admire  many  men  who  are  priests  ;  but 
I  admire  them  in  the  church,  and  I  would  be  the  first 
to  oppose  their  interference  in  matters  out  of  their 
sphere.  No  country  in  the  world  is  less  susceptible 
of  government  by  absolutism  than  Spain.  It  never 
was  so  governed  ;  it  will  never  be.  The  Basque  prov- 
inces and  Navarre  have,  from  time  immemorial,  pos- 


96  SPAIN  AND    THE  SPANIARDS. 

sessed  the  privileges  of  the  most  free  countries.  I 
have  always  emphatically  declared  that  I  will  leave 
the  framing  of  a  Spanish  constitution  to  the  action  of 
a  freely  elected  Cortes.  I  wonder  there  can  still  exist 
a  doubt  of  my  intention  in  this  respect.  My  pro- 
gramme of  government  can  be  set  forth  in  a  very  few 
words.  Everything  shall  be  done  through  a  free 
Cortes.  There  shall  be  complete  decentralization  in 
everything  but  general  politics." 

Here  the  prince  spoke  somewhat  in  detail  of  his 
several  manifestoes  addressed  to  the  Spaniards,  as  well 
as  to  the  foreign  courts,  appearing  to  assume  that  every 
man  was  bound  to  know  these  documents,  a  circum- 
stance which  made  me  feel  rather  uneasy,  as  I  had  no 
idea  of  them.  Consequently,  I  took  good  care  to 
change  the  conversation  by  reference  to  the  interrup- 
tion of  travel  in  Spain  and  the  Carlist  action  of  firing 
on  railway  trains. 

Don  Carlos  replied,  "  War  is  war.  You  cannot 
make  an  omelet  without  breaking  some  eggs.  Inter- 
ruption of  travel,  under  such  circumstances,  is  not  pe- 
culiar to  Spain.  I  did  my  utmost  to  prevent  it.  I 
proposed  to  the  Northern  Company  to  neutralize  the 
rails  and  telegraph,  and  said  that  we  would  respect 
and  protect  the  trains  and  wires  if  they  were  not  used 
for  military  purposes.  The  directors  said,  in  reply,  that 
the  government  at  Madrid  would  not  allow  them  to 
treat  with  us,  and  that  it  would  rather  have  public 
traffic  stopped  than  do  so.  We  cannot  permit  the  Re- 
publican troops  to  advance  and  retreat  by  railway, 
whilst  our  men  are  on  foot.  Hence  the  destruction  of 
the  railroads.     I  am  ready  to  renew  negotiations  on 


DON  CARLOS,  HIS  WIFE,  AND  HIS  VIEWS.   97 

the  subject  any  time ;  but  I  am  afraid  we  shall  have  to 
wait  till  the  Madrid  government  comes  to  its  senses." 

The  conversation  then  naturally  turned  to  the  gov- 
ernment at  Madrid. 

"  The  republic  is  never  possible  in  Spain  without 
assuming  the  wildest  socialist  character,"  said  Don 
Carlos,  after  he  had  spoken  very  highly  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  goverament  individually.  "I  consider 
Castelar  and  Figueras  men  of  great  ability,  but  I  am 
not  sure  that  they  are  great  statesmen.  I  believe  them 
to  be  men  of  irreproachable  integrity ;  but  this  very 
integrity  blinds  them  to  the  dishonesty  of  their  fol- 
lowers. There  is  no  danger  from  these  gentlemen  if 
they  are  but  firm ;  but  it  is  in  their  supporters  that  peril 
lies.  They  will  never  be  able  to  control  them,  being 
themselves  unconsciously  urged  forward.  Here  is  a 
copy  of  a  Republican  paper  published  in  Madrid.  Send 
it  to  your  journal,  and  show  what  the  republic  means 
in  Spain,"  and  he  handed  me  a  copy  of  Los  Desca- 
misados*  (the  Shirtless  Ones),  a  Spanish  term  equiva- 
lent to  the  Sa7is  Culottes. 

The  discussion  of  the  chances  of  a  Spanish  republic 
brought  us  to  the  French  commonwealth  and  to  M. 
Thiers,  whom  the  prince  declared  a  great  enemy  to  the 
Bourbon  cause.  *'  In  the  Seven  Years'  War,"  said  he, 
"France,  England,  Portugal,  and  Madrid  formed  a 
quadruple  alliance  against  my  grandfather.    M.  Thiers, 

*  A  miserable  publication,  which,  as  I  afterwards  learned  in 
Madrid,  was  issued  by  some  enemies  of  Republican  institutions, 
for  the  sake,  as  usual,  of  frightening  the  mass  of  the  people  into 
monarchy  of  some  form  or  other. 

7 


98  SPAIN  AND    THE  SPANIARDS. 

not  satisfied  with  sending  a  foreign  legion,  which  was 
cut  to  pieces,  wished  to  send  regular  troops ;  but  Louis 
Philippe  opposed  him.  The  little  man,  who  was  just 
as  obstinate  then  as  he  is  now,  was  put  out  of  ofiice, 
and  has  never  ceased  to  hate  us  as  the  cause  of  his 
downfall  on  that  occasion.  Besides,  we  are  Legiti- 
mists, and  he  hates  Legitimacy.  He  has  quite  recently- 
forwarded  a  despatch  to  the  French  minister  at  Madrid, 
of  which  our  friends  have  sent  me  a  copy.  In  this 
paper  he  exhibits  his  notorious  disposition  for  intrigue. 
He  says  he  regrets  he  cannot  take  more  active  meas- 
ures against  the  Carlists  without  exciting  the  indigna- 
tion of  the  French  Royalists,  who  are  already  difficult 
to  control ;  but  he  suggests  that  the  French  ambassa- 
dor may  do  us  a  good  deal  of  harm  in  discouraging  our 
cause  at  Madrid.  M.  Thiers  added  that  Germany  was 
unfavorable  to  me,  and  that  though  Russia  and  Eng- 
land were  not  unwilling  to  support  Carlism,  if  they 
became  satisfied  it  was  making  progress,  he  exerted  his 
best  efforts  to  —  as  he  called  it  —  open  the  eyes  of 
these  governments.  With  all  this,  however,  he  dares 
not  recognize  the  Spanish  republic.  But  I  have  not 
much  reason  to  fear  the  intrigues  and  hostility  of  M. 
Thiers." 

As  a  matter  of  course,  here  again  the  conversation 
could  not  pass  without  touching  upon  Cuba.  But 
though  the  prince  was  apparently  talking  freely,  his 
declaration  of  this  point  was  not  very  definite.  He 
said,  "I  know  the  American  people  take  great  interest 
in  this  topic.  I  understand  you  have  spoken  on  it  with 
General  Elio.  I  cannot  say  more  than  he  did.  I 
must  even  say  lesSj  for  although  I  believe  the  abolition 


DON  CARLOS,  HIS  WIFE,  AND  HIS  VIEWS.  99 

of  slavery  to  be  indispensable,  I  am  of  opinion  that 
emancipation  should  not  be  at  the  expense  of  the  pro- 
prietors; therefore  it  must  be  gradual.  As  to  the 
alienation  of  the  colony,  I  believe  that  no  Spanish 
government,  of  whatever  form  or  nature  it  may  be, 
will  ever  dare  to  propose  the  subject  in  Spain." 

It  was  now  one  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  the  ciga- 
rette case  was  empty.  I  accepted  this  as  a  signal  to 
retire,  Don  Carlos  expressing  his  hope  that  we  should 
soon  meet  again  on  Spanish  soil. 

In  the  ante-room,  the  gentlemen  of  the  prince's  per- 
sonal staff  once  more  carefully  pointed  out  to  me  how 
great  and  exceptional  was  the  favor  accorded  to  me, 
owing  to  the  strict  seclusion  which  it  was  necessary  for 
the  prince  to  observe,  and  asked  me  to  be  on  my  guard, 
in  case  any  police  agent  should  present  himself  to  me 
at  Peyrehorade,  where  I  had  to  spend  the  night.  They 
suggested  that,  in  case  I  should  be  asked  what  brought 
me  to  that  little  place,  I  should  say  I  came  to  have 
some  fishing  in  the  Gave,  as  many  originaux  anglais 
do  come.  And  as  I  wished  to  do  my  best  not  to  com- 
promise either  Don  Carlos  or  any  of  his  adherents,  I 
made  a  great  fuss  the  next  morning,  at  the  little  auberge 
"  Aux  Deux  Soeurs^'*  about  some  fishing-rods,  of  which 
I  finally  got  a  couple,  and  after  having  spent  several 
hours  by  the  river  side  and  caught  nothing,  took  the 
afternoon  train  back  to  Bayonne. 

To  get  at  Don  Carlos  at  that  time  was  (hj  no  means 
from  my  own,  but)  from  a  journalist's  point  of  view 
what  is  called  "  a  hit."  The  London  bureau  of  the 
Herald  had  accordingly  telegraphed  to  New  York,  at  a 
considerable  expense,  something  like  four  columns  of 


100  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

the  report  of  this  interview,  and  a  couple  of  weeks 
later  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  my  work  repro- 
duced in  several  English  papers.  But,  much  to  my  as- 
tonishment, it  was  said  to  have  been  taken  from  the 
Cologne  Gazette,  the  economical  German  paper  having 
quietly  copied  the  report,  and  given  it  out  as  the  work 
of  its  own  correspondent :  "  Es  hleibt  so  in  der  Fa- 
milies 

Three  months  later  Don  Carlos  entered  the  land  he 
claims  the  right  to  reign  over.  What  he  did  there 
shall  be  told  by  and  by.  At  present,  we  have  to  go  to 
Madrid,  in  the  great  square  of  which,  styled  Puerta 
del  Sol^  armed  "gentlemen  of  the  pavement"  were 
said  to  be  settling  the  so-called  social  problem,  much 
in  the  same  way  as  armed  peasants  of  the  Basque 
provinces  were  settling  the  question  of  Spanish  legiti- 
macy. 


FROM  BAYONNE   TO  MADRID.  101 


CHAPTER  V. 

FROM  BAYONNE  TO  MADRID. 

THE  telegrams  of  Renter's  and  Havas,  whose  busi- 
ness it  seems  to  be  to  concoct  sensational  para- 
graphs when  actual  news  is  scarce,  have  made  every 
one  outside  the  romantic  and  unbusin ess-like  Peninsula 
believe  that  people  were  slaughtered  daily  in  Spain  by 
the  hundred,  if  not  by  the  thousand,  and  that  peaceful 
citizens  of  well-regulated  countries,  who  were  not  par- 
ticularly anxious  to  get  rid  of  their  property  or  their 
lives,  should  not  cross  the  Pyrenees  under  any  consid- 
eration whatever.  Thousands  of  Britons  who  had 
passed  the  winter  season  at  Biarritz,  Pau,  and  similar 
places,  where 

"  The  witchery  of  the  soft  blue  sky" 

could  be  experienced,  and  who  would  have  gone  for  the 
carnival  to  Madrid,  and  for  Good  Friday  and  Easter 
Sunday  to  Seville,  were  now  getting  sour  and  mouldy 
in  their  winter  abodes  through  sheer  exaggeration  of 
the  dangers  to  which  they  would  expose  themselves  on 
entering  the  land  of  the  Cid.  But  the  more  I  saw  of 
Spain,  the  more  comical  appeared  to  me  all  these  ap- 
prehensions. 

Having  heard  that  a  serious  movement  of  the  Lv- 


102  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

transigentes  was  being  prepared  at  Madrid,  I  hurriedly 
left  Bayonne  at  midday  on  the  21st  of  April,  1873,  by 
express  to  Irun.  Friends  strongly  advised  me  to  get 
my  papers  in  order;  to  burn  all  Carlist  safe-condncts, 
which,  if  found  on  me  by  Republicans,  would  be  taken 
as  proofs  of  my  being  a  Carlist  in  disguise ;  to  take  as 
little  money  as  possible,  for  I  was  sure  to  be  robbed  ; 
and  so  on  —  a  lot  of  comforting  advice.  On  reaching 
Irun,  however,  it  turned  out  that  I  was  not  even  asked 
for  my  passport,  and  that  no  one  cared  to  know  who  I 
was,  and  why  I  was  going  into  Spain.  My  luggage 
was  the  only  thing  that  seemed  to  interest  the  local 
authorities.  Custom-house  officials  of  the  republic  be- 
gan to  ransack  it  in  the  most  unceremonious  manner, 
and,  not  finding  anything  prohibited,  proceeded  to  im- 
pose a  heavy  duty  on  a  Scotch  plaid,  which  had  served 
me  for  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years.  I  had  great  diffi- 
culty in  demonstrating  that  although  Scotch,  and  there- 
fore extranjero^  the  plaid  was  not  new,  and,  conse- 
quently, not  subject  to  taxation,  and  that  it  was  also 
intended  for  my  own  use,  and  not  as  a  present  for  any 
seiiora,  for  I  had  no  seiiora  to  make  presents  to. 

The  rails  were  of  course  cut,  and  no  train  to  be  ex- 
pected before  Vitoria,  which  was  some  eighty  miles 
distant.  But  there  were  plenty  of  little  omnibuses, 
with  four  mules  each,  in  readiness  to  convey  us  to  San 
Sebastian,  whence  a  Seiior  Marcelino  Ugalde,  it  was 
said,  had  established  regular  diligence  communications 
to  Zummarraga,  and  thence  to  Vitoria.  Of  the  degree 
of  safety  of  the  road  no  one  could  tell  us  anything, 
except  that  there  were  Carlists  in  several  places,  and 
that  diligences  were  often  stopped,  but  that  no  passen- 


FROM  BAYONNE    TO  MADRID.  103 

ger  had  been  killed  for  some  time  past.  For  the  lug- 
gage, however,  the  diligence  administration  would  not 
take  any  responsibility  whatever,  except  that  of  putting 
it,  in  return  for  a  certain  (very  heavy)  charge,  on  the 
top  of  the  conveyance.  It  was  for  the  travellers  to 
look  after  it  subsequently,  and  to  negotiate  about  it 
with  the  Carlists,  should  any  difficulty  arise  during  the 
journey. 

Irun  itself  was  fortified,  or  supposed  to  be  so.  A 
palisade  surrounded  each  of  the  leading  buildings,  in- 
cluding the  abandoned  railway  station.  But  these  pal- 
isades were  of  such  a  description  that  a  runaway  don- 
key w^ould  have  easily  upset  them,  and  any  pocket 
revolver  ball  get  through  them  just  as  easily.  All  the 
balconies  and  windows  were  also  "fortified,"  the  former 
by  means  of  similar  palisades,  and  the  latter  by  being 
half  walled  up  with  a  kind  of  antediluvian  stone-ma- 
sonry, in  which  some  peep-holes  were  pierced.  But 
the  Carlists  not  having  shown  any  desire  to  pay  a  visit 
to  Irun,  even  these  inoffensive  fortifications  were  fall- 
ing into  desuetude. 

Our  travelling  party  consisted  of  about  a  dozen  per- 
sons, including  a  couple  of  women  with  very  noisy 
babies,  a  shabby-looking  priest  in  a  permanent  state  of 
perspiration,  several  peasants  in  picturesque  costumes, 
very  brigand-looking,  and  strongly  smelling  of  garlic,  and 
two  P^-ench  Jews,  commercial  travellers  from  Bayonne. 
The  little  omnibuses  for  four  persons  each  were  just  as 
bad  as  London  four-wheelers  are,  and  differed  from  them 
only  by  the  door  being  behind,  and  the  seats  disposed 
accordingly.  But  the  speed  of  conveyance  was  quite 
different  in   the   two   cases.     Instead   of  a  wretched 


104  SPAIN  AND    THE  SPANIARDS. 

horse,  we  had  four  fresh  mules,  which  carried  us  at  the 
rate  of  at  least  ten  miles  an  hour  through  the  pic- 
turesque mountain  country,  with  the  Bay  of  Biscaya 
brilliantly  unfolding  itself  to  our  eyes  every  now  and 
then.  The  road  itself  was  all  that  could  be  wished 
for,  and  in  less  than  two  hours  we  reached  San  Se- 
bastian, the  capital  of  the  province  of  Guipuzcoa,  and 
formerly  the  Gibraltar  of  Northern  Spain. 

San  Sebastian  is,  according  to  Ford,  "memorable  for 
its  sieges,  lies,  and  libels."  It  was  .captured  by  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  in  1813,  and  burnt  down  to  the 
ground,  yet  —  according  to  the  same  authority — not 
by  the  English,  but  by  the  French,  and  "  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  annoying  the  English."  Whether  the 
inhabitants  of  San  Sebastian  were  at  that  time  pleased 
by  the  proceedings  of  the  English  and  the  French  thus 
"annoying"  each  other  within  their  walls,  I  am  xmable 
to  tell.  But  sure  it  is  that  the  town  looks  now  all  the 
better  for  it,  being  thoroughly  rebuilt  in  the  modern 
style,  though  of  course  it  does  not  look  as  picturesque 
as  it  probably  looked  formerly,  and  has  no  longer  any 
ramparts,  not  even  such  curious  ones  as  Irun  pos- 
sesses. It  is  now  simply  a  fashionable  watering-place, 
and  a  great  resort  for  smuggling  business,  in  which,  it 
would  seem,  representatives  of  British  commerce  are 
interested  to  a  very  considerable  extent.  It  serves 
also  as  a  safe  and  not  altogether  unpleasant  residence 
for  British  subjects  who  get  into  "trouble,"  and  prefer 
a  quiet  life  on  the  shores  of  the  Bay  of  Biscaya  to  legal 
proceedings  in  England.  All  these  circumstances  make 
of  San  Sebastian  quite  an  English  colony.  English 
faces   are  to  be  seen,  and  the  English  tongue  to  be 


FROM  B A  TONNE   TO  MADRID.  105 

heard,  at  almost  every  step.  But  the  well-regulated 
habits  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  do  not  seem  to  influ- 
ence much  the  indolent  and  imbusiness-like  nature  of 
the  Spanish  portion  of  the  population.  At  all  events, 
it  would  not  a^^pear  from  the  way  in  which  "  the  regu- 
lar diligence  communication"  of  the  aforesaid  Senor 
Marcelino  Ugalde  was  carried  on.  We  arrived  at  four 
P.  M.,  and  were  advised  to  secure  our  tickets  at  once, 
but  could  not  make  out  until  midnight  what  time  we 
were  to  start.  At  midnight  we  were  told  we  had 
better  go  to  bed,  as  care  would  be  taken  to  call  upon 
each  of  us  at  our  respective  hotels  when  the  diligence 
was  to  start.  So  we  did  go  to  bed,  and  at  three  in  the 
morning,  some  violent  knocks  at  my  door  gave  me  to 
understand  that  I  was  "  wanted,"  either  for  the  purpose 
of  having  my  throat  cut,  or  for  that  of  being  conveyed 
to  Zummarraga.  To  my  satisfaction,  it  turned  out 
that  it  was  for  the  latter  purpose. 

Homer's  or  Dante's  would  be  the  only  pen  fit  to 
describe  our  nocturnal  pilgrimage.  Fancy  a  pitch- 
dark  night  in  a  place  you  have  never  been  in  before, 
among  people  who  talk  Basque  to  you  and  are  sup- 
posed to  be  a  set  of  brigands,  with  the  prospect,  in 
,  addition  to  all  that,  of  ferocious  Carlists  falling  upon 
you  as  soon  as  you  are  on  the  high  road.  A  wretched 
lantern  stuck  up  on  the  top  of  what  seemed  at  first 
sight  to  be  a  little  mountain,  did  not  contribute  much 
light  for  the  discernment  of  things.  By  and  by,  how- 
ever, I  perceived  that  this  mountain  was  the  diligence, 
an  old  nondescript  vehicle  of  an  immensurable  height, 
with  a  monstrous  heap  of  luggage  on  it,  and  with 
seven  mules  to  it.     My  first  impression  was  that  the 


106  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

mules  would  never  be  able  to  set  it  in  motion  at  all, 
and  that,  should  they  manage  to  do  so,  the  monster 
would,  no  doubt,  immediately  upset.  Mr.  PlimsoU  and 
his  overloaded  ships  immediately  crossed  my  mind, 
but  I  soon  felt  that  there  was  not  the  slightest  use  in 
meditating  about  legislative  projetlts  or  drawing  foreign 
analogies,  and  that  I  had  better  secure  a  seat,  and 
looked  for  my  luggage. 

The  seats  were,  of  course,  not  numbered,  and  I  was 
told  I  could  take  whichever  I  liked  best ;  as  to  my 
luggage,  it  was  already  loaded,  and  all  I  had  to  do  was 
to  pay  another  seventy  reals  for  it,  in  addition  to  the 
eighty  reals  already  pai<l  for  my  ticket.  The  man 
who  told  me  that,  assumed  that  I  ou^ht  to  have  been 
quite  delighted,  and  that  no  more  satisfactory  position 
than  mine  could  be  well  imagined.  Giving  up,  there- 
fore, all  hopes  of  being  permited  to  inquire  whether 
my  portmanteaux,  instead  of  being  loaded,  were  not 
stolen,  I  proceeded  to  secure  a  seat,  and  found  the 
atmosphere  inside  the  immense  vehicle  so  full  of  garlic 
and  other  attractive  perfumes,  and  the  vehicle  itself 
so  thickly  packed  with  objects  and  subjects  of  which  I 
was  unable  to  discern  the  nature,  that  I  did  not  hesi- 
tate a  moment  to  decide  that  I  would  rather  run  all 
the  way  alongside  the  mules  than  go  in  such  a  pan- 
demonium. But  the  perspiring  priest,  with  whom 
we  had  become  friends  on  the  previous  evening,  was 
already  on  the  lookout  for  me,  to  say  he  had  secured 
me  a  seat  outside.  Great  were  my  thanks  for  his  at- 
tention ;  but  if  I  escaped  asphyxia  inside  the  diligence, 
I  certainly  did  not  escape  mediaaval  torture.  A  little 
portable  bench   had   been  placed   on  the  top  of  the 


FROM  BATONNE   TO  MADRID.  107 

vehicle  in  front  of  the  mountain  of  luggage,  and  a 
couple  of  square  inches  of  space  on  it  were  allotted  to 
each  of  us.  The  bench  was  thus  made  to  accommodate 
four  persons,  my  two  other  companions  being  the 
French  Jews  from  Bayonne,  and  as  I  had  on  the  pre- 
vious day  had  some  clerical  conversation  with  the 
reverend  father,  and  did  not  quite  meet  his  views,  I 
began  to  think  now  he  had  purposely  put  me  and  the 
Jews  to  this  trial.  All  the  horrors  of  the  Inquisition 
crept  one  by  one  into  my  head  under  the  influence  of 
the  physical  pain  I  was  subjected  to,  and  by  and  by 
the  priest  became  to  my  mind  thoroughly  identified 
with  the  image  of  a  Torquemada  on  a  small  scale. 

The  journey  lasted  over  fourteen  hours,  and  all  the 
time  our  legs  were  hanging  down  without  any  vestige 
of  a  support  of  any  sort,  quite  as  if  we  were  sitting  on 
the  edge  of  a  roof.  The  coachman,  whose  box  was 
down  below  us,  was  all  the  way  howling  horribly,  and 
whipping  us  right  across  the  face  with  the  interminable 
whip,  the  reaction  of  which  he  said  he  was  unable  to 
control.  Each  stroke  he  gave  to  one  of  his  seven 
mules  was  a  stroke  to  some  one  of  us  too.  The 
mountain  of  luggage  behind  us  pushed  us  violently 
down,  together  with  our  bench,  each  time  the  diligence 
was  going  down  hill,  and  superhuman  efibrts  were  re- 
quired on  our  part  not  to  faU  on  the  mules,  and  thence 
under  the  wheels.  To  improve  our  position  in  any 
way  whatever  was  utterly  impossible.  To  argue  with 
the  coachman  was  perfectly  useless  ;  he  knew  his  busi- 
ness, and  would  not  risk  the  peril  of  the  heavy  coche 
publico  crushing  his  mules,  for  a  few  lashes  he  might 
spare   us.     The   only  moments   of  rest  we  had   from 


108  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

these  tortures  were  at  the  villages  where  mules  were 
changed,  or  when  too  rapid  ascents  presented  them- 
selves, and  several  pairs  of  oxen  had  to  be  substituted 
for  mules.  We  could  then  get  down  and  walk  for  a 
while  alongside  the  coach,  thus  restoring  vitality  to  our 
benumbed  limbs. 

In  this  comfortable  way  did  we  travel  from  four  in 
the  morning  till  eleven,  when  an  hour's  time  was 
granted  to  us  at  Zumraarraga  for  lunch  and  pay- 
ment of  another  eighty  reals  to  Vitoria.  Of  danger, 
properly  so  called,  there  was  yet  not  the  slightest  trace. 
Much  to  our  astonishment,  we  had  not  even  been  up- 
set. And  except  the  torture  inflicted  upon  us,  and  the 
infamous  Spanish  cooking,  we  had  to  complain  of 
absolutely  nothing. 

It  was  at  Zummarraga  that  we  were  for  the  first 
time  positively  told  we  should  meet  Carlist  bands 
within  a  few  miles.  But  at  the  same  time  we  were 
assured  that  if  we  had  neither  ofiicial  despatches  nor 
escort,  we  had  nothing  to  fear.  We  should  have  a 
slight  toll  to  pay,  and  would  perhaps  be  searched  for 
arms  —  that  was  all.  I  need  scarcely  say  that,  as'we 
were  still  travelling  through  the  provinces  of  Guipuz- 
coa  and  Alava,  every  town  and  village  was  thoroughly 
Carlist  in  its  sympathies,  and  although  all  had  "  forti- 
fied" balconies  and  windows,  the  population  obviously 
never  intended  to  defend  itself,  these  fortifications 
having  been  constructed  by  Republican  orders  and  for 
Kepublican  troops. 

Our  coachman,  a  Carlist  to  the  back-bone,  gave  us 
by  his  mere  presence  among  us  the  best  imaginable 
protection.     When  we  entered  the  first  village  occu- 


FROM  BA  TONNE   TO  MADRID.  109 

pied  by  tbe  champions  of  Bios^  Patria^  y  Bey^  the 
leading  street  was  of  course  full  of  people,  attracted 
by  the  noise  of  our  heavy  vehicle,  and  of  endless  num- 
bers of  little  bells  hanging  and  ringing  on  the  mules' 
necks.  Women,  children,  Carlists  in  arms,  rushing 
pigs,  barking  dogs  flocked  around  us;  but  we  did  not 
seem  to  call  forth  any  feeling,  except  sheer  curiosity, 
even  in  the  fiercest-looking  Carlist.  The  diligence 
stopped  at  the  fonda.  The  coachman  alighted,  went 
into  the  inn  with  the  head  of  the  Carlist  band,  handed 
him  several  newspapers  and  letters  he  had  for  him, 
talked  about  five  or  ten  minutes,  and  after  payment  of 
fifty  cents  a  head  on  every  traveller,  once  more  took  the 
reins,  and  we  were  off  again  without  having  been  asked 
a  single  question.  Of  course,  we  all  had  an  intense 
consciousness  that  we  were  practically  at  the  mercy 
of  a  band  of  armed  ruffians,  and  this  by  no  means  made 
us  feel  comfortable.  But  as  I  have  to  record  here 
facts,  and  not  individual  feelings,  I  have  no  reason  to 
dwell  on  the  various  manifestations  of  nervousness 
shown  by  our  fellow-travellers. 

Three  times  were  we  stopped  in  that  way  before  we 
reached  Vitoria,  and  each  time  we  had  to  undergo  the 
same  undangerous  process  of  paying  head-money,  and 
of  waiting  till  the  coachman  had  delivered  his  secret 
correspondence  and  given  all  the  information  the  Car- 
list  jefe  may  have  wanted.  That  murders  were  com- 
mitted on  the  high  roads  of  Spain  years  and  years 
ago,  can  be  little  doubted,  for  one  can  scarcely  travel 
a  few  miles  without  seeing  by  the  roadside  a  lonely 
stone  with  a  cross  on  it,  and  an  inscription  telling  one 
that  on  this  place  Don  So-and-so  had  found  his  life's 


110  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS, 

end.  But  it  can  be  as  little  doubted  that  nowadays, 
even  in  districts  where  Caiiist  war  is  supposed  to  rage, 
an  unarmed  man  can  travel  quite  safely,  notwithstand- 
ing all  the  dreadful  stories  spread  abroad  about  this 
curious  and  good-natured  nation. 

The  high  road  to  Vitoria  offered  also  an  excellent 
illustration  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Spaniards 
were  carrying  on  their  civil  war  at  the  outset.  On 
leaving  a  village  occupied  by  Carlists,  we  invariably 
reached,  after  a  few  miles'  drive,  one  occupied  by  Re- 
publican troops.  This  alternate,  or  rather  intermittent, 
position  of  the  respective  forces  puzzled  me  very  much, 
and  I  made  several  inquiries  of  the  men  themselves 
what  was  the  reason  of  this  strange  state  of  affairs, 
and  why  —  since  they  were  so  near  each  other  and 
almost  intermixed  —  they  did  not  fight  it  out  some 
day,  so  that  either  the  one  or  the  other  party  might 
become  master  of  the  ground  now  divided  into  queer 
little  bits  among  them.  And  the  answer  to  such  in- 
quiries was  invariably  the  same.  The  Carlists  said  they 
could  not  attack  the  Republicans,  because  they  were  in 
small  numbers  here,  and  had  no  artillery;  while  the 
Republicans  asserted  they  could  i^ever  get  at  the  Car- 
lists,  for  they  always  occupied  villages  situated  high  on 
the  mountains,  watched  every  movement  of  the  Repub- 
lican columns  down  in  the  valley,  and  set  off  as  soon  as 
they  saw  that  an  attack  on  them  was  intended. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  manner  in  which  our  coach 
was  received  in  villages  occupied  by  Republican  troops, 
differed  in  no  way  from  its  reception  in  villages  occu- 
pied by  the  Carlists.  There  was  the  same  idle  crowd 
in  the  leading  street  gazing  at  us,  the  same  stoppage  at 


FROM  BAYONNE   TO  MADRID,  111 

the  inn,  and  the  saine  mysterions  talk  between  the 
coachman  and  the  commanding  officers.  In  front  of 
the  municipal  council  house,  a  number  of  Republican 
soldiers  were  playing  ball,  just  as  lustily  as  in  the  other 
village  Carlists  were.  The  only  difference  was,  that  we 
had  no  head-money  to  pay  to  the  Republicans,  and  that 
some  of  the  Carlists  had  guns  in  their  hands,  while  none 
of  the  Republican  soldiers  had  any  sort  of  arms  at  all 
about  them.  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  fortified  balco- 
nies and  windows  invariably  reappearing  in  every  vil- 
lage, we  should  never  have  had  reason  to  believe  that 
we  were  really  in  a  country  where  war  was  going  on. 
The  apparent  carelessness  of  regular  Spanish  troops  is, 
indeed,  something  quite  puzzling.  The  Carlists  had,  at 
least,  a  couple  of  sentries  posted  outside  the  village  on 
the  road ;  but  the  Republicans  did  not  seem  to  think 
even  that  precaution  necessary.  On  approaching  Vito- 
ria  we  met  a  Republican  column,  some  seven  or  eight 
hundred  men  strong,  marching  out  in  search  of  Carlists, 
and  the  manner  in  which  that  column  was  proceeding 
on  its  way,  headed  by  a  handsome  colonel  dozing  on 
horseback,  would  throw  deep  melancholy  into  the 
bosom  of  any  English  or  German  disciplinarian.  The 
column  had  neither  vanguard  nor  rearguard,  and  a  few 
dozen  determined  men  springing  out  of  an  ambuscade 
could  have  dispersed  it  at  any  given  moment.  Every 
man  was  walking  as  he  pleased,  smoking  his  cigarette, 
and  except  by  his  being  dressed  in  uniform,  differed  in 
his  general  attitude  in  no  way  from  British  radicals  or 
Irish  patriots  forming  Hyde  Park  processions. 

On  arriving  at  Yitoria  and  alighting  at  the  Hotel  de 
Pallares,  I  learned  that  there  was  little  prospect  of  any 


112  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

train  starting  to  Madrid,  as  the  cure  of  Alaya  was  burn- 
ing several  stations  near  Miranda.  It  looked  as  if  some 
more  Torquemada  diligence  torture  were  in  store  for 
us.  But  our  hunger  and  fatigue  were  so  intense  that 
all  thought  about  the  morrow  was  abandoned,  and 
immediate  dinner  became  the  only  thing  cared  for. 
We  rushed  into  the  coniedor^  or  dining-room,  without 
even  waiting  till  our  luggage  mountain  was  unloaded, 
or  our  beds  secured.  But  nothing  was  lost  through 
that  attack  of  voracity  on  our  part.  The  luggage 
turned  up  all  right,  and  every  passenger  bad  something 
to  lie  upon  at  night. 

Next  morning,  while  restoring  myself  from  the  tor- 
tures of  the  diligence,  I  heard  a  great  martial  move- 
ment going  on  in  the  street.  Bands  were  playing, 
horses  galloping,  regiments  marching.  I  got  up,  and 
learned  that  a  "great  victory"  had  been  achieved  by 
the  Republicans,  and  that  a  large  number  of  prisoners 
would  be  presently  brought  into  town.  The  military 
governor  of  the  province.  Brigadier  Gonzalez,  rode  out 
to  meet  them,  followed  by  a  numerous  suite  dressed  in 
glittering  uniforms,  while  he  was  himself  in  a  light-gray 
overcoat,  and  with  a  chimney-pot  hat  on  his  head. 
It  was  the  Republican  column  we  had  met  on  the  pre- 
vious day  that  was  now  returning,  after  a  "brilliant" 
engagement  it  had  had  early  in  the  morning.  Consid- 
erable importance  was  evidently  attached  to  the  event, 
and  the  ceremouy  of  meeting  the  victorious  column 
looked  quite  a  grand  affair.  But  Brigadier  Gonzalez 
still  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  put  on  a  uniform, 
though  he  was  considered  by  the  Madrid  government 
as  a  great  disciplinarian,  and  on  the  strength  of  this 


FROM  BAYONNE   TO  MADRID.  113 

reputation  was  subsequently  appointed    minister  of 
war. 

The  disarmed  but  quite  merry-looking  prisoners  were 
marched  in  with  a  numerous  escort ;  quite  as  strong  a 
force  was  escorting  the  cart  carrying  the  rifles  taken 
from  them.  The  prisoners  were  lodged  in  the  town 
jail,  and  their  arms  in  some  other  safie  place;  but  as 
soon  as  the  ceremonial  part  of  the  business  was  over, 
and  the  soldiers  had  retired  to  .their  barracks,  the  jail 
was  surrounded  by  a  mass  of  people,  and  there  was  no 
end  of  greeting  and  cheering,  the  fellows  looking  quite 
as  jolly  through  the  railings  of  the  prison  windows  as 
if  they  were  attending  a  wedding  party. 

To  start  from  Vitoria  was  almost  as  difficult  as  it  had 
been  from  San  Sebastian.  Up  till  four  P.  M.  no  one 
knew  at  the  station,  or  anywhere  else,  whether  there 
would  be  a  train  at  all.  Some  said  all  the  rails  were 
taken  off  near  Miranda;  others  that  all  the  stations 
were  on  fire;  the  telegraph  was  cut,  and  no  exact  in- 
formation could  be  received  unless  a  train  from  Madrid 
should  turn  up.  The  platform  of  the  station  was  all 
day  long  crowded  with  people  looking  out  for  such  an 
event,  and  after  several  hours'  waiting,  they  were  gratified 
with  the  sight  of  a  locomotive  at  a  distance,  and  with 
the  sound  of  its  whistle.  The  joy  became  exceedingly 
demonstrative,  and  the  news  of  a  Madrid  train  having 
arrived  safe  spread  over  the  town  with  electric  celerity. 
Much  to  our  astonishment,  when  the  train  reached  the 
platform,  the  doors  of  several  luggage-vans  at  both 
ends  of  it  opened  of  themselves,  and  poured  out  no 
end  of  cazadores  (riflemen)  and  carabineros  (fusiliers). 
It  was  the  escort.  The  Carlists  having  declared  over 
8 


114  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

and  over  sgain  that  they  would  fire  at  and  upset  any 
train  that  carried  troops,  the  escort  was  now  almost 
hermetically  shut  up  in  the  luggage-vans.  But,  not- 
withstanding the  safe  arrival  of  the  train  at  Vitoiia,  it 
took  the  railway  authorities  a  good  deal  of  time  to 
decide  whether  a  return-train  could  be  started,  after 
all  the  rumors  which  were  current  in  the  town.  It  was 
only  under  the  heavy  pressure  of  the  travellers,  and  on 
the  reiterated  assurance  of  the  officers  commanding 
the  escort  that  there  were  no  Carlists  on  the  road,  and 
on  their  official  request  to  send  the  escort  back  to 
Miranda,  that  the  railway  authorities  made  up  their 
mind  to  order  the  engine  to  be  placed  the  other  way, 
and  began  to  distribute  tickets.  In  another  half  hour 
we  were  off  amidst  the  blessings  and  good  wishes  of 
a  crowded  platform.  The  escort  was,  of  course,  again 
thickly  packed,  and  locked  up  in  the  luggage-vans, 
while  the  few  travellers  had  each  a  whole  first-class 
carriage  to  himself.  The  majority,  on  entering  the 
carriages,  began  at  once  to  barricade  the  windows  with 
cushions  and  hand  luggage,  so  as  to  lessen  the  chance 
of  any  Carlist  balls  reaching  them.  The  train  went 
forward  with  great  caution,  and  an  additional  couple 
of  men  were  placed  on  the  engine  to  look  out  for  places 
where  rails  might  have  been  cut.  We  did  not  pro- 
gress more  than  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour;  but 
neither  received  Carlist  balls,  nor  underwent  any  smash. 
Still,  I  must  avow  that  such  slow  travelling,  with  the 
constant  idea  of  the  possibility  of  an  immediate  acci- 
dent in  your  mind,  is  by  no  means  a  pleasant  thing. 
After  a  while,  one  gets  positively  desirous  that  some- 
thing should  happen,  and  thus  put  an  end  to  the  un- 
certainty. 


FROM  BAYONNE   TO  MADRID.  115 

On  arriving  at  Miranda,  about  ten  o'clock  at  night, 
the  escort  left  us ;  but  it  turned  out  that,  to  all  appear- 
ance, the  really  dangerous  portion  of  the  line  was  be- 
yond that  town.  The  Carlists  were  at  the  second 
station  from  Miranda  on  the  previous  day,  and  had  set 
it  on  fire,  consequent  on  some  "misunderstanding"  be- 
tween the  leader  of  a  Carlist  partida  (the  priest  Alaya) 
and  the  station  master ;  but  the  band  —  w^e  were  in- 
formed—  was  now  being  pursued  by  the  troops  in  the 
mountains,  and  the  line  clear.  So  ofi"  we  were  to  Bur- 
gos, and  when  we  had  passed  the  still-burning  station, 
—  which,  by  the  way,  presented  a  very  fine  sight 
amidst  the  darkness  of  a  southern  night,  —  and  the 
engine-driver  felt  quite  out  of  danger,  he  made  the 
train  run  at  a  rate  which  was  by  no  means  comforting 
to  those  who  know  the  carelessness  of  Spanish  guards 
and  pointsmen.  But  we  were  too  tired  and  sleepy  to 
concern  ourselves  with  either  the  behavior  of  the 
engine-driver  and  the  guards,  or  the  night  aspects  of 
glorious  cities  like  Burgos  and  Yalladolid,  through 
which  we  had  to  pass.  Early  next  morning,  we  awoke 
with  the  sight  of  the  snow-covered  heights  of  Sierra 
Guadarrama  on  our  right,  and  that  of  the  monkish  and 
mournful  giant,  Escorial,  on  our  left.  The  guard  en- 
tered the  carriage  to  say  w^e  had  reached  the  Escorial 
station,  and  had  to  wait  there,  as  a  telegram  was  ex- 
pected from  Madrid  to  say  whether  we  could  proceed 
farther;  for  the  capital  was,  according  to  the  news 
received  during  the  night,  in  full  revolution.  The  In- 
trayisigentes  had  taken  possession  of  all  the  important 
public  buildings,  including  the  railway  station,  and  gen- 
eral fighting  was  expected  to  begin  at  daybreak.    Al- 


116  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS, 

though  I  had  already  some  idea  of  the  Spanish  tendency 
to  exaggeration,  I  thought  this  news  looked  serious. 
But  in  an  hour's  time  "  permission  "  to  proceed  arrived, 
and  about  ten  A.  M.  we  reached  the  northern  station 
of  Madrid,  which  was  really  in  full  possession  of  an 
armed  and  ragged  mob,  but  not  a  drop  of  blood 
seemed  to  have  been  shed.  Gendarmes  and  soldiers 
of  the  late  monarchy  were  noisily  fraternizing  with 
armed  "  gentlemen  of  the  pavement."  It  was  clear 
that  there  might  have  been  a  conflict,  but  that  it  had 
been  settled  by  the  very  peaceful  process  of  one  of  the 
conflicting  parties  retiring  from  the  struggle. 

There  is  no  need  to  repeat  here  all  the  rumors  which 
comforted  us  at  Escorial.  The  Intransigentes  were 
shooting  everybody  who  did  not  join  them ;  the  army 
had  partly  mutinied,  partly  fled ;  Serrano  had  fought  a 
duel  with  Pi  y  Margall,  and  so  on.  But  on  reaching 
the  unlucky  capital,  we  were  satisfied  that,  though  the 
streets  were  crowded  with  a  vociferous  and  gesticulat- 
ing mob,  the  greater  portion  of  which  bore  arms,  there 
were  no  shots  to  be  heard,  nor  anything  to  be  seen 
suggestive  of  the  probability  of  any  at  that  moment. 
The  omnibuses  and  carriages  which  took  up  the  pas- 
sengers at  the  station  had  considerable  difficulty  in  pass- 
ing through  the  streets,  but  managed  to  deposit  all  of 
us  safely  at  our  respective  hotels ;  and  the  absence  of 
any  custom-house  officers,  and  the  consequent  non- 
ransacking  of  our  luggage,  rather  predisposed  some  of 
us  in  favor  of  the  regime  of  mob-rule. 


THE  FEDERALIST  COUP  D'ETAT,       UT 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE  events  which  will  be  described  in  Spanish  his- 
tory as  the  Federalist  coup  d'etat  of  April  23, 
were  very  simple  in  their  nature.  When  King  Amar 
deo  abdicated  and  retired  from  Spain,  he  left  behind 
him  a  "National  Assembly,"  which,  amalgamated  from 
two  houses  of  parliament  elected  under  a  monarchy,  was 
of  course  composed  mainly  of  Monarchists,  though  of 
a  liberal  shade,  known  in  Spanish  political  nomencla- 
ture as  radicals.  They  constituted  a  majority  of  nearly 
three  fourths.  But  some  of  the  seats  on  the  opposition 
benches  were  occupied  by  gentlemen  of  great  attain- 
ments and  very  high  reputation  for  integrity,  yet 
strongly  inclined  towards  ultra-republican  theories. 
Among  them  Seiior  Estanislao  Figueras  and  Senor 
Emilio  Castelar  were  the  best  known  abroad,  espe- 
cially the  latter,  who  used,  without  knowing  a  word 
of  English,  to  write  a  good  deal  in  the  Fortnightly 
Review,  and  in  Harpers'  Magazine,  chiefly  on  ques- 
tions connected  with  the  Republican  movement  in 
Europe.  The  Monarchists  of  this  assembly  were,  as 
they  invariably  are  in  Spain,  very  much  out  of  tune 
with  each  other;  every  one  of  them  wanted  something 
diflferent  from  what  his  next  neighbor  wanted,  and  so 


118  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

no  sort  of  agreement  or  common  action  could  ever 
have  been  expected  from  them  in  a  critical  moment. 
When  Amadeo,  annoyed  by  the  open  hostility  shown 
to  him,  by  violent  party  struggles,  and  by  the  heavy 
expenses  of  royalty,  deposited  his  crown,  the  sundry 
factions  of  Monarchists  were  utterly  unable  to  agree  as 
to  any  line  of  action.  They  were,  as  usual,  hesitating 
and  quarelling,  and  thus  gave  the  Republican  fraction 
ample  opportunity  to  jump  at  the  tribune,  and  proclaim 
the  republic,  which,  as  it  turned  out,  did  not  find  any 
actual  opposition  in  the  mass  of  the  people  outside 
the  assembly,  and  was  therefore  considered  as  estab- 
lished. A  Republican  ministry  was  at  once  formed, 
and  Seiior  Figueras  appointed  president  of  the  execu- 
tive power. 

The  new  Spanish  republic  had  a  luck  which  few 
republics  ever  had  —  that  of  being  able,  after  one  or 
two  readjustments  during  the  month  of  February,  to 
compose  a  government,  against  the  members  of  which 
absolutely  nothing  detrimental  could  be  said.  Every 
one  of  the  men  called  to  power  was  known  as  a  man 
of  high  integrity  and  irreproachable  morals,  and  some 
were,  besides,  known  as  very  able  men,  especially  so 
Seiior  Figueras  (the  president),  Seiior  Nicolas  Sal- 
meron  (minister  of  justice),  Seiior  Francisco  Pi  y 
Margall  (home  minister),  and  Seiior  Eduardo  Chao 
(minister  of  the  fomento,  or  progress,  which  includes 
commerce,  public  instruction,  &c.).  The  remainder 
were  men  who  had  still  to  show  whether  they  had  the 
abilities  of  statesmen,  but  who  had,  one  way  or  the 
other,  obtained  considerable  popularity.  Senor  Emilio 
Castelar  (foreign  affairs)  was  a  fine  w^riter  and  poet> 


THE  FEDERALIST  COUP  D'ETAT        119 

and  Senor  Juau  Tutau  (finances)  was  supposed  to  be 
an  excellent  authority  in  political  economy.  The  war 
and  marine  ministers  were  the  only  ones  still  objected 
to  by  the  majority  of  the  Republicans  on  account  of 
their  Monarchical  connection.  But  it  was  impossible 
to  find  all  at  once  experienced  officers  beyond  the 
sphere  of  those  who  had  served  under  the  monarchy. 
In  this  way,  whatever  success  the  Spanish  republic  has 
had  at  the  outset,  was  entirely  due  to  the  personal 
character  of  the  men  composing  the  new  cabinet,  and 
I  have  never  heard  in  Madrid,  or  in  the  provinces,  any 
person,  however  hostile  to  the  republic,  say  anything 
detrimental  against  any  of  these  ministers  as  individu- 
als. The  high  reputation  of  these  gentlemen  was  a 
fact  of  almost  incalculable  importance  in  a  country 
where  governmental  circles  are  most  corrupt,  where 
scandalous  gossip  is  very  much  liked,  and  personal  life 
very  much  inquired  into.  The  new  ministry  had  also 
another  and  rare  advantage  —  that  of  being  very 
homogeneous.  The  ministers  seemed  never  to  quarrel 
with  each  other,  and  on  the  whole,  I  believe,  seldom 
had  any  members  of  a  cabinet  been  more  united  in 
their  views  than  those  who  had  to  work  under  Senor 
Figueras. 

The  old  Assembly  was  of  course  dissolved,  and  new 
elections  were  to  take  place  for  a  Constituent  Assem- 
bly, which  was  to  frame  a  new  constitution  for  the 
country.  But  a  permanent  committee,  with  rather 
indistinctly  limited  powers,  was  left  sitting  until  the 
new  elections  were  over.  Its  duties  were  supposed  to 
consist  of  a  general  superintendence  over  the  affairs 
of  the   country  and   the   dealings   of   the    ministers. 


120  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

This  committee  turned  out  to  be  thoroughly  hostile  to 
the  republic,  and  consequently  no  harmony  between 
it  and  the  ministry  could  have  been  expected  from  the 
outset.  They  interfered  with  every  measure  of  the 
executive  power,  made  several  attempts  to  postpone 
the  elections,  and  to  reconvoke  the  old  Assembly,  and 
their  quarrels  grew  more  and  more  threatening  every 
day.  At  the  same  time,  rumors  began  to  circulate 
that  the  committee  had  come  to  an  agreement  with 
Marshal  Serrano  and  several  other  generals,  to  upset 
the  government  by  means  of  a  military  coup  cPetat^ 
and  to  bring  the  marshal  once  more  to  power.  On  the 
other  hand,  Seiior  Figueras'  wife  having  died,  the 
president  expressed  his  desire  to  retire  for  a  short 
time  from  office,  and  the  ministry  appointed  Senor  Pi  y 
Margall  as  president  j^ro  tempore.  The  committee 
at  once  protested,  saying  it  was  not  the  minister's 
but  the  committee's  business  to  select  a  president  in 
such  a  case.  In  a  word,  an  open  war  was  going  on 
for  several  days  between  ihe  two  governing  bodies,  and 
on  the  23d  of  April,  some  eleven  battalions  of  the  old 
Monarchical  National  Guards  (about  four  thousand 
men  strong),  mustered  by  General  Letona  and  the 
Marquis  of  Sardoal,  were  ordered  to  assemble  at  the 
Plaza  de  Toros,  under  pretence  of  a  review.  The 
civil  governor  of  Madrid,  Senor  Estevanez,  a  very 
shrewd  Republican,  knowing  what  this  review  meant, 
and  aware  that  Marshal  Serrano's  house  was  day  and 
night  full  of  generals  holding  commands  in  the  regular 
army,  ordered  in  the  first  place  all  the  Republican 
battalions  to  assemble,  also  for  a  review ;  and  in  the 
second  rushed  to  Senor  Pi  y  Margall,  and  induced  him 


THE  FEDERALIST   COUP  D'ETAT.         121 

to  dismiss  at  once  all  the  conspiring  generals  and  to 
appoint  others.  At  the  same  time  he  hurriedly  pub- 
lished the  following  proclamation  :  — 

"  Madrilenos !  —  When  I  took  charge  of  the  Civil 
Governorship  of  the  Province,  I  promised  you  I  would 
watch  over  the  public  interests,  the  security,  and  the 
rights  of  all  the  citizens.  If  I  have  complied  with  this 
up  to  now,  I  must  in  equal  manner  comply  with  it  in 
the  future,  however  critical  the  circumstances  may  be. 
The  Monarchical  demagogism  has  placed  itself  in 
rebellion  against  the  legitimate  Government,  but  the 
latter  counts  on  the  support  of  the  forces  of  the  army, 
Civil  Guards,  and  Volunteers  of  the  Republic.  I 
promise  you  I  shall  re-establish  order,  however  painful 
it  may  be  for  me  to  fight  against  those  who  w^ere  also 
Volunteers  of  the  Republic,  but  who  to-day  have 
assumed  a  traitorous  attitude. 

"  Health  and  fraternity. 

"Nicolas  Estevanez,  Civil  Governor. 

"Madrid,  April  23." 

He  had  overtures  made  to  him  by  the  Conservatives, 
showed  a  disposition  to  listen  to  them,  and  when  he 
had  grasped  the  nature  of  the  arrangement,  attacked 
it  with  all  the  unscrupulousness  of  a  stanch  ultra- 
Radical.  The  army,  under  its  new  oiScers,  was  prac- 
tically neutralized,  and,  for  still  greater  safety,  part  of 
it  sent  out  of  town.  As  to  the  artillery,  Senor  Este- 
vanez  had  fully  secured  its  assistance.  In  that  way,  at 
noon  on  the  memorable  Wednesday,  Madrid  found 
itself  divided  between  two  armed  forces,  of  which  one 


122  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

was  incomparably  less  strong  than  the  other.  The 
eleven  Monarchical  battalions  took  refuge  in  the  vast 
building  of  the  bull-ring,  and  were  disarmed  there  by 
the  Republican  forces  without  one  shot  having  been 
fired,  except  the  few  with  which  the  appearance  of  the 
Republican  commander,  General  Contreras,  had  been 
greeted,  and  which  resulted  in  the  death  of  a  poor 
unconcerned  cabman.  The  Republican  victory  was  as 
complete  as  it  could  possibly  be,  and,  taking  full 
advantage  of  it,  Sefior  Pi  y  Margall  went,  on  the  same 
night,  a  little  beyond  the  strictly  legal  limits  of  his 
position :  he  issued  a  decree  dissolving  both  the  Per- 
manent Committee  and  the  refractory  battalions,  adding 
that  he  would  justify  these  acts  before  the  new  Assem- 
bly when  it  met  on  the  1st  of  June.  • 

Theoretically,  the  young  minister  of  the  interior, 
and  pro  tempore  president  of  the  republic,  was  now 
as  fully  a  master  of  Spain  a«  any  dictator  ever  was  in 
any  country;  but  practically  he  had  over  him  the  will 
of  an  armed  and  victorious  mob,  and  Allah  alone 
knows  what  would  have  happened  under  similar  cir- 
cumstances in  any  other  country.  Here,  however, 
everything  passed  off  in  a  curiously  quiet  manner. 
All  the  ringleaders  of  the  reactionary  movement  took 
to  flight,  including  Marshal  Serrano  and  the  members 
of  the  permanent  committee,  and  those  who  had  man- 
aged to  win  the  day  were  left  to  do  what  they  i)leased. 
When  I  reached  Madrid  early  on  the  24th,  the  whole 
town  was  in  arms.  The  Puerta  del  Sol,  that  celebrated 
centre  of  all  Spanish  revolutions,  was  covered  with 
noisy  and  demonstrative  human  beings,  most  of  whom 
had  loaded  guns  in  their  hands.     I  purposely  secured 


THE  FEDERALIST  COUP  D'ETAT.        123 

an  apartment  looking  on  the  Puerta,  but  in  vain  did  I 
wait  all  day  long  on  my  balcony  for  the  sight  of  a 
tight.  The  only  objectionable  thing  a  portion  of  this 
mob  did,  was  to  go  to  the  houses  of  the  ringleaders  of 
the  reactionary  party,  and  to  make  a  search  there  for 
their  proprietors,  none  of  whom  could  be  found,  of 
course.  But  during  these  domiciliary  visits,  the  armed 
mob  nowhere  committed  any  robbery  or  caused  any 
destruction  of  property.  The  searches  were  made  in 
the  most  orderly  way,  and  except  arms,  of  which  some 
of  the  disaffected  generals  liad  rather  large  and  valua- 
ble collections,  nothing  was  carried  away  from  the 
houses. ,  On  looking  at  the  proceedings  of  that  ragged 
mass  of  what  seemed  really  to  be  most  ferocious-look- 
ing ruffians,  I  remembered,  unwillingly,  the  days  of  the 
Paris  Commune.  A  comparison  naturally  suggested 
itself  to  my  mind,  and  I  felt  a  deep  respect  for  the 
unlucky  and  much  abused  Spanish  people. 

While  I  was  thus  engaged  in  a  process  of  retro- 
spective and  international  comparison,  ray  landlord, 
who,  like  all  shop  and  hotel  keepers  in  Madrid,  was  an 
obstinate  Monarchist,  rushed  into  my  room  quite  pale 
and  nervous,  saying  I  had  better  pack  my  luggage 
again,  as  we  were  at  the  full  mercy  of  the  mob,  and 
were  sure  to  have  "dogs  dining  upon  our  bowels" 
{tripas)  to-morrow  morning.  Yet  that  to-morrow 
morning  brought  no  increase  of  danger  either.  All 
seemed  to  go  on  still  quite  harmlessly,  though  the 
crowd  covering  the  celebrated  square  in  front  of  the 
Palace  of  the  Gobernacion  seemed  to  be  still  larger. 
Yet  not  a  quarrel  was  to  be  seen,  no  violence  was  com- 
mitted ;  and  an  order  of  the  day  censuring  the  inva- 


124  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

sion  of  private  houses  was  placarded  everywhere, 
warning  the  National  Guards  against  any  new  attempt 
of  the  sort,  which  would  bring  the  culprits  before  the 
tribunals. 

The  young  Spanish  republic  was  about  two  months 
old  when  I  reached  Madrid.  The  hardships  the  newly- 
born  baby  was  now  exposed  to,  and  the  trials  it  had  to 
undergo,  were  something  quite  desperate.  In  several 
large  towns  the  working  classes  proved  utterly  unable 
to  comprehend  Republican  institutions,  except  in  the 
shape  of  an  anarchy  tempered  by  grape  shot,  and  had, 
according  to  circumstances,  either  to  be  bamboozled  or 
to  be  fought.  A  fanatical  civil  war  was  raging  .all  over 
the  north  of  the  country.  Justice,  administrative 
machinery,  army,  navy,  everything  that  constitutes 
government,  was  in  a  state  of  perfect  disorganization 
and  ruin.  The  treasury  was  literally  penniless,  and 
foreign  iron-clads  were  sternly  cruising  along  the  coast. 
But  a  circumstance  threatening  still  more  immediate 
danger,  was  the  open  hostility  between  the  executive 
power  and  the  permanent  committee.  It  became 
evident  that  they  could  not  get  along  together,  and  that 
one  of  the  two  would  have  to  submit.  The  contest 
was  decided  in  favor  of  the  executive  power;  and, 
truly  speaking,  it  is  only  from  the  23d  of  April  that 
the  establishment  of  the  now  fallen  republic  ought  to 
be  reckoned ;  for  as  long  as  the  Monarchical  factions 
were  still  in  the  field,  and  at  liberty  not  only  to  con- 
spire, but  to  bring  an  armed  force  into  the  streets  of 
Madrid,  the  Spanish  republic  stood  on  a  most  shaky 
basis. 

Thus,  as  far  as  the  Republicans  were  then  concerned, 


THE  FEDERALIST  COUP  D'ETAT.        125 

I  could  easily  make  out  both  the  meaning  of  the 
memorable  Wednesday  and  the  manner  in  which  they 
carried  the  day.  But  I  was  anxious  to  ascertain  what 
were  the  exact  intentions  of  their  opponents,  and 
whose  guilt  it  was  that  the  Conservative  attempt 
proved  a  failure.  The  officers  had  then  not  yet  lost 
all  control  over  the  army,  and  a  great  feeling  of  discon- 
tent seemed  to  prevail  in  the  regular  troops,  consequent 
on  the  indiscriminate  armament  of  the  National  Guards. 
It  seemed  rather  strange  that  the  opponents  of  the 
government  had  not  taken  advantage  of  it,  mustered 
the  regiments,  and  upset  so  eminently  an  unmilitary 
lot  of  men  as  Seiior  Figueras,  Seiior  Castelar,  and 
Seiior  Pi  y  Margall.  Marshal  Serrano  was  the  most 
likely  man  to  know  everything,  and  I  soon  made  off  in 
search  of  him. 

On  the  eve  of  my  starting  for  Madrid  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  presenting  my  compliments  to  the  Duchess 
de  la  Torre  —  for  such  is  the  title  by  which  both  the 
marshal  and  his  lady  prefer  to  be  called  —  at  her  villa 
Rue  Silhouette,  Biarritz.  "I  should  like  very  much 
your  calling  upon  my  husband  if  you  have  time,"  said 
the  duchess,  about  whom  so  many  wicked  rumors  had 
been  spread,  and  who  is  still  one  of  the  most  fascinat- 
ing and  amiable  ladies  I  know.  "  He  would  be  so  glad 
to  know  that  both  the  children  and  I  are  getting  well, 
and  to  see  some  one  that  has  so  recently  seen  us  !  I 
wdll  just  drop  you  a  line  for  him ; "  and  slowly,  in  a  supine 
and  lazy  sort  of  way,  the  duchess  began  to  scrawl 
something  on  a  miniature  bit  of  Marion  paper,  still 
talking,  without  lifting  her  eyes  from  the  lines  her 
little  hand  was  tracing.    But  I  was  unable  to  listen  to 


126  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

her;  she  gave  me  too  good  a  chance,  unnoticed,  to 
enjoy  the  charming  features  against  which  both  age 
and  the  anxieties  of  revolutions  seem  to  have  proved 
equally  powerless.  "  I  am,  however,  afraid,"  said  she, 
folding  her  little  epistle,  "  that  my  poor  duke  will  not 
be  of  any  use  to  you  at  Madrid.  What  is  he  now? 
Nothing.  And  he  has  done  so  much  for  Spain  !  Quite 
recently,  he  tried  again  to  render  the  country  a  service 
by  settling  the  artillery  question.  The  gentlemen  who 
call  themselves  ministers  at  Madrid  gave  him  full 
powers,  saying  that  they  accepted  beforehand  all  his 
stipulations.  Yet  yesterday  I  received  a  letter  from 
him  showing  that  all  his  efforts  had  been  in  vain,  and 
that  these  gentlemen  behaved  towards  him  like  men 
without  honor.  You  know  how  moderate  the  duke  is 
in  his  language,  and  therefore  you  will  believe  that  the 
case  must  have  been  a  very  hard  one,  indeed,  if  he 
speaks  in  that  w^ay.  At  the  same  time,  every  one  feels 
that  he  is  the  only  man  that  could  help  our  poor  coun- 
try out  of  the  chaos.  I  have  received  from  Monsieur 
Thiers  several  telegrams  within  these  last  days.  He 
not  only  offers,  with  his  usual  courtesy,  to  place  himself 
at  my  and  my  husband's  disposal,  but  assures  me  that, 
should  the  duke  come  to  power,  the  republic  would  be 
immediately  acknowledged  by  France,  and  he  believed 
by  other  powers,  too."  And  while  narrating  me  this 
underhand  escapade  of  the  shrewd  little  ruler  of  France, 
she  handed  me  her  almost  microscopical  note  bearing 
the  address,  "  Excelentisimo  SenorDuque  de  la  Torre^'* 
written  in  the  fine  and  small  handwriting  which  only 
a  Spanish  lady  is  capable  of.  Yet  notwithstanding  my 
being  armed  with  this  highly  effective  pass,  I  had  to 


THE  FEDERALIST  COUP  D'ETAT,        127 

give  up  all  hopes  of  discovering  the  whereabouts  of  the 
marshal  when  I  reached  Madrid.  His  most  intimate 
friends  seemed  to  have  no  idea  where  he  could  be. 

"If  any  one  knows  anything  positive,"  said  one  of 
them,  "it  can  only  be  the  old  Countess  de  Montijo. 
But  he  is  not  with  her,  for  her  house  was  ransacked 
yesterday  by  an  armed  band."  A  few  days  later  every 
one  knew  that,  with  the  aid  of  the  English  minister, 
Mr.  Layard,  and  of  an  English  razor  that  shaved  off 
the  marshal's  moustachios,  he  had  safely  escaped  to 
France.  But  in  the  first  turmoil  the  fact  was  not 
generally  known,  and  as  the  Countess  de  Montijo  had 
favored  me  with  an  invitation  to  come  and  see  her 
when  I  visited  Madrid,  I  resolved  to  call  without  any 
further  delay  at  the  well-known  mansion  of  the  Plaza 
del  Angel,  so  plain-looking  from  the  outside  and  so 
intensely  comfortable  within. 


128  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   COUNTESS    OF    MONTIJO    ON    SPANISH    MOB-RULE. 

THE  mother  of  the  Ex-Empress  of  the  French 
is  almost  blind  now,  but  her  mind  is  as  fresh  and 
bright  as  ever,  and  her  house  remains  still  the  centre 
where  all  notabilities  congregate  in  Madrid.  I  called 
on  the  countess  early  in  the  afternoon,  and  found  her 
alone,  seated  in  her  favorite  artificially  darkened  cor- 
ner of  a  vast  hall,  transformed  into  a  winter  garden. 
The  conversation  fell  quite  naturally  on  the  events  of 
the  day,  and  the  old  lady,  at  all  times  a  capital  talker, 
was  more  animated  than  ever. 

"  Serrano  was  not  here,"  said  she,  "  and  I  sincerely 
regret  that  he  did  not  ask  for  my  hospitality.  I 
should  have  been  most  happy  to  be  of  any  assistance 
to  him.  He  is  a  man  of  eminent  capacities  and  great 
energy,  though  I  don't  believe  him  to  be  fit  lor  an 
actual  leader.  He  must  work  under  some  one  —  or  at 
least  in  the  name  of  some  one  —  then  he  is  worth 
any  price.  But  when  he  is  to  be  the  man  he  is  in- 
clined to  hesitate,  and  I  know  that  this  time  my  esti- 
mate of  him  has  perfectly  justified  itself.  If  they  did 
not  succeed  on  Wednesday,  it  was  his  fault.  Every 
one  came  to  him  for  positive  orders,  and  he  did  not 
give  any.  He  permitted  himself  to  be  outdone  by 
Estevanez.     That  is   a   man!   a  brigand!   but  really 


COUNTESS   OF  MONTIJO   ON  MOB-RULE.     129 

a  man.  Without  liim,  the  literati  ruling  to-day  over 
our  destinies  would  have  lost  a  day  or  two  more,  and 
Serrano  might  perhaps  have  taken  some  resolution. 
But  Estevanez  spied  out  everything,  caused  all  the 
commanding  officers  to  be  changed  at  a  few  minutes' 
notice,  and  not  only  defeated  Serrano,  but  nearly  cut 
off  all  his  chances  of  escape.  If  we  were  a  revengeful 
people,  the  poor  marshal  might  have  been  shot  already. 
But  happily  enough,  we  are  not  so;  we  always  help 
each  other  out  of  difficulties,  and  I  am  sure  that  Ser- 
rano was  protected  by  the  very  men  against  whom  he 
fought,  and  that  every  one  of  the  vanquished  party 
has  escaped  with  the  full  knowledge  of  the  govern- 
ment. I  know  that  Seiior  Castelar  did  his  best  to 
place  every  leader  of  the  movement  under  the  pro- 
tection of  some  foreign  embassy.  We  are,  don't  you 
see,  so  accustomed  to  revolutions,  and  are  so  little 
sure  of  not  wanting  some  one's  help  to-morrow,  that 
we  instinctively  protect  everybody  to-day.  This  per- 
sonal kindness,  combined  with  apparently  great  politi- 
cal harshness,  is  quite  characteristic  of  the  Spaniards 
of  all  classes.  It  has  got  into  their  blood.  You  may 
be  sure  that  in  a  fortnight  —  unless  something  new 
happens  —  Serrano  may  drive  daily  on  the  Prado  as 
comfortably  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  But  what 
do  I  say  —  a  fortnight  ?  To-morrow  every  danger 
will  be  over,  especially  if  there  is  a  bull-fight.  You 
will  see  it  yourself.  Yet  you  might  see  also  many 
new  rows,  and  perhaps  actual  bloodshed,  should  the 
weather  get  hot,  and  our  blood  begin  to  boil  a  little. 
As  long  as  the  -weather  remains  so  cold,  I  do  not 
apprehend  any  serious  disturbances." 
9 


130  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

I  could  not  help  laughing  at  the  picture  the  count- 
ess drew  here  of  the  temperament  and  peculiarities 
of  her  countrymen. 

"  You  laugh,"  said  she,  "  but  I  am  really  telling  you 
the  truth,  although  I  may  seem  as  if  I  was  joking. 
We  are  a  strange  people,  not  like  everybody  else. 
Look  at  the  mob,  for  instance,  that  is  now  complete 
master  of  every  one  of  us.  Do  they  do  any  harm 
to  any  one?  Personal  safety  was  never  greater  in 
Madrid  than  it  is  now.  All  the  ruffians  get  a  gun, 
suppose  themselves  to  be  something,  and  are  quite 
satisfied.  They  watch  over  that  very  property  they 
might  have  otherwise  destroyed,  and  protect  those 
lives  they  might  have  otherwise  taken.  I  begin  to 
like  Republican  arrangements.  Turn  all  the  thieves 
and  biigands  into  guardians  of  peace  and  order,  and 
all  the  difficulties  of  the  so-called  large  agglomera- 
tions of  modern  cities  are  got  over.  Is  it  not  nice? 
But  all  ^:>Zaisa?? Series  aside,  I  must  avow  I  am  amazed 
at  the  conduct  of  what  we  call  our  canaille.  I  begin 
deeply  to  respect  this  semi-savage  mob.  They  behave 
themselves  really  wonderfully,  and  I  believe  nowhere 
could  a  similar  sight  be  seen  —  certainly  not  in  our 
beloved  France.  Mind  you,  that  they  are  absolute 
masters  to  do  what  they  please ;  and  what  have  they 
done  ?  I  will  give  you  one  instance.  On  an  estate 
of  mine  in  the  province  of  Valladolid,  the  peasants 
got  the  notion  that  the  '  republic '  meant  the  break- 
ing up  of  large  estates  and  the  distribution  of  land 
among  them.  And  so  they  came  to  my  steward  to 
inquire  when  and  how  the  partition  was  to  be  af- 
fected.    They   said   they   knew   for   certain   that  the 


COUNTESS   OF  MONTIJO   ON  MOB-RULE.     131 

republic  meant  such  a  partition.  The  steward,  who  is 
a  clever  old  man,  and  knows  his  people  well,  did  not 
make  any  noise,  and  did  not  contradict  them,  but 
said  he  was  quite  sure  they  were  right,  and  was  very 
glad  their  position  would  be  so  much  better  now ; 
but  added  that,  before  proceeding  with  any  new  ar- 
rangement, both  himself  and  the  peasants  ought  to 
receive  orders  from  Madrid,  so  as  to  avoid  any  chance 
of  getting  into  legal  troubles.  They  quite  agreed  with 
him  that  such  was  the  wisest  course  to  take,  and 
though  the  explanation  was  given  them  three  months 
ago,  they  have  never  raised  the  question  again  since 
that  time. 

"  Even  here  in  Madrid,  where  the  mob  is  supposed 
to  be  much  more  dangerous  than  in  the  pi'ovinces,  it 
seems  to  be  just  as  good-natured.  You  know  that 
a  band  invaded  my  house  yesterday  in  search  of  Ser- 
rano. I  was  at  dinner  with  a  few  friends,  and  on  the 
footman's  announcement  of  the  unexpected  visit,  I 
ordered  him  to  say  to  the  man  in  command  of  the 
band,  that  as  I  had  no  material  force  to  oppose  him,  he 
was  at  liberty  to  do  what  he  pleased,  but  I  would  not 
disturb  myself  from  my  dinner.  And  I  gave  orders 
to  throw  everything  open.  Well,  what  was  the  re- 
sult? Five  men  only  came  up  stairs,  the  body  of 
them  remaining  outside.  They  searched  every  corner 
of  the  house,  but  in  a  manner  as  proper  and  orderly 
as  the  best  police  would  have  done.  And  when  they 
reached  the  dining-room,  and  I  invited  them,  accord- 
ing to  our  national  custom,  to  partake  of  my  meal, 
they  all  blushed  like  school-girls,  and  were  only  anx- 
ious to  get  away  as  quickly  as  possible." 


132  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

The  countess  spoke  often  and  much  on  the  inoffen- 
siveness  of  the  Spanish  character,  and  I  purposely 
give  here  her  opinion,  as  that  of  a  person  whom  none 
will  accuse  of  being  a  partisan  of  mob-rule  or  demo- 
cratic theories,  and  who,  being  now  quite  aloof  from 
any  political  party,  has  lived  long  enough  to  form 
a  just  estimate  of  the  peculiarities  of  her  countrymen. 
Even  in  the  worst  days  of  the  revolutionary  out- 
breaks, the  countess  never  left  Si)ain  if  she  happened 
to  be  there,  and  never  showed  anything  like  distrust 
towards  any  class  of  her  fellow-countrymen.  Her  re- 
ward is  the  profound  consideration  in  which  she  is 
held  by  all  her  countrymen,  without  distinction  of 
party. 


Every  day  at  half  past  seven  some  half  a  dozen 
friends  sit  down  at  the  countess's  table,  from  which  the 
national  pochero  is  never  missing,  and  which  is  always 
so  delicious  that  it  compensates  one  for  all  the  miser- 
able Spanish  dishes  which  one  may  have  been  com- 
pelled to  swallow  in  the  most  out  of  the  way  corners 
of  Estremadura  or  La  Mancha.  A  little  after  nine 
the  doors  of  her  drawing-room  are  opened,  and  some 
more  guests,  belonging  to  all  shades  of  political  opin- 
ions, come  to  salute  the  old  lady,  to  listen  to  what 
she  Has  to  say  on  the  topics  of  the  day,  and  now  and 
then  to  afford  her  the  opportunity  of  having  a  talk 
of  the  olden  times  when  her  eldest  daughter,  the 
Duchess  of  Alba,  before  whose  beautiful  full-sized  por- 
trait she  is  always  sitting,  was  still  alive  ;  or  of  those 
nearer   days    when   her    other   daughter   had   not   to 


COUNTESS   OF  MONTIJO   ON  MOB-RULE.     133 

• 

mourn  the  loss  either  of  a  husband  or  an  imperial 
crown. 

The  countess  watches  with  great  interest  the  state 
of  English  popular  opinion  with  reference  to  Spain. 
Her  English  lady's  companion  reads  to  her  every  day 
some  London  newspaper,  and  next  to  such  paragraphs 
as  may  happen  to  be  in  it  from  Chiselhurst,  comes  inva- 
riably the  Spanish  special  correspondence  column. 

"  I  am  glad  to  see,"  said  she  once  to  me,  when  I 
found  her  at  one  of  these  daily  readings,  "  that  the 
English  journalists  have  given  up  describing  us  as  brig- 
ands and  assassins.  They  still  sneer  at  us,  and  some- 
times in  a  very  nasty  way,  but  that  we  forgive  them ; 
we  know  that  all  Englishmen  want  is  to  carry  on 
trade  with  this  country,  and  that,  whenever  there 
is  any  disturbance  in  the  regular  business  traffic,  Eng- 
land becomes  at  once  discontented.  But  I  hope  the 
day  will  come  when  they  will  know  us  better  and 
like  us  better.  At  all  events,  those  Englishmen  I  see 
here,  and  who  are  residents  in  our  country,  have  often 
repeated  to  me  that,  whatever  may  have  been  the 
political  disturbances,  they  always  found  that  both 
property  and  life  were  quite  as  secure  in  Spain  as  in 
England,  and  that  in  Madrid  they  were  even  more 
so  than  in  London."  I  did,  of  course,  my  best  to 
persuade  the  old  lady  that  the  notions  about  Spanish 
savagery  and  brigandage  had  almost  disappeared  in 
England,  and  that,  even  in  so  old  a  book  about  Spain 
as  that  of  Mr.  Ford,  complaints  were  already  made 
that,  notwithstanding  the  constant  demand  for  brigand 
adventures  in  the  home  market,  great  ingenuity  must 
now  be  evinced  by  travellers  to  get  up  bona  fide  ma- 


134  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

terials  for  anything  in  the  shape  of  a  story  of  a  nice 
Spanish  murder,  or  robbery. 

On  the  Sunday  which  followed  the  Federalist  coup 
cPetat^  I  took  advantage  of  the  old  lady's  advice,  and 
went  to  the  bull-ring  to  see  whether  really  the  popu- 
lation of  Madrid  would  have  forgotten  all  that  had 
passed  during  the  week.  The  ring  is  said  to  be  capa- 
ble of  accommodating  about  thirteen  thousand  people, 
and  it  was  crowded  to  excess  on  that  dav.  Even  all 
the  approaches  to  the  Plaza  de  Toros  were  thronged 
with  a  gayly-dressed  crowd.  The  National  Guards, 
having  apparently  forgotten  that  they  were  now  guar- 
dians of  peace  and  order,  left  their  guns  at  home,  and 
were  Ihe  first  to  create  a  perfectly  indescribable  noise. 
Royalists  and  Federalists  were  joining  in  the  common 
excitement,  and  the  young  Duchess  of  Alba,  by  her 
anxious  watching  of  the  bull-fight  from  her  box,  evi- 
dently showed  that  she  was  just  as  sure  that  peace 
and  order  were  not  threatened  in  Madrid,  as  her  old 
grandmother.  When  I  next  saw  the  countess,  and 
complimented  her  on  the  perspicacity  she  had  evinced 
in  foretelling  that  everything  would  be  settled  by 
Sunday  afternoon,  when  the  fight  was  to  take  place, 
she  answered  me  with  a  quiet  sort  of  smile,  which 
is  scarcely  ever  absent  from  her  lips, — 

"  I  should  have  been  very  sorry  if  I  had  not  been 
right,  for  it  would  have  proved  that  I  had  lived  for 
about  seventy  years  among  the  people  of  my  country 
without  ever  learning  to  know  them.  I  can  give  you, 
however,  another  proof  that  I  know  my  Spaniards 
well.  I  told  you  the  other  day  that  Serrano  was 
most  likely  to  escape  by  the  aid  of  the  very  men  who 


COUNTESS   OF  MONTIJO   ON  MOB-RULE.     135 

are  now  in  power,  and  who,  to  judge  by  the  surface 
of  things,  must  be  most  angry  against  him.  And  it 
turns  out  that  he  did  really  escape  quite  safely,  and 
not  only  with  the  knowledge,  but  by  the  direct  aid,  of 
the  members  of  the  Republican  government,  and  more 
especially  by  that  of  Castelar.  The  eloquent  orator 
had  a  debt  of  honor  to  pay,  for  Serrano  once  facili- 
tated his  escape ;  and  it  was  only  fair  that  he  should 
return  the  service.  As  I  told  you,  we  live  in  this 
country  on  the  principle  of  a  mutual  escape  insurance. 
Besides,  what  would  the  government  have  done,  had 
all  the  leaders  of  the  Plaza  de  Toros  movement  been 
captured !  Why,  it  would  have  been  the  greatest 
calamity  that  could  have  happened  to  the  ministry. 
The  '  sovereign  people  '  would  have  at  once  demanded 
the  life  of  those  men,  while  Castelar  and  company  have 
all  their  lifie  long  written  and  speechified  against  capi- 
tal punishment.  The  European  governments  would 
also  have  risen  against  the  wholesale  execution  of 
men  of  such  high  position,  and  the  Republican  cabinet 
is  above  all  other  things  anxious  to  appear  as  a  respec- 
table body  in  the  eyes  of  European  powers,  so  as  to 
get  some  chance  of  being  officially  recognized  abroad. 
All  this  most  naturally  have  led  to  their  helping  the 
escape  of  every  one  of  their  opponents  and  enemies. 
Castelar  and  Figueras  were  for  two  days  conferring 
with  the  foreign  ambassadors  in  Madrid  on  the  subject 
of  how  better  to  protect  the  valuable  lives  of  the 
very  men  who  had  conspired  to  upset  them.  They 
were  all  distributed  among  the  sundry  legations;  and 
it  was  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Layard  who  undertook  to  protect 
the  leading  spirit  of  the  abortive  attempt.     After  hav- 


136  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

» 
ing  for  about  twenty-four  hours  rushed  in  disguise 
about  the  residences  of  some  of  his  most  intimate 
friends,  the  man  who  liad  so  o^ten  ruled  Spain  was 
safely  brought  to  the  Calle  Torija,  where  his  mus- 
taches were  shaved  off,  some  English  looking  whis- 
kers pasted  on  his  cheeks,  and  an  old  travelling  suit 
of  Mr.  Layard's  put  on  him,  a  big  and  ugly  felt  hat 
serving  as  a  complement  to  the  whole.  Being  shown 
in  this  masquerade  attire  to  some  of  his  friends,  and 
they  having  declared  him  to  be  utterly  mecoiinaissahley 
he  was  despatched  under  the  kind  escort  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Layard  to  the  railway  station,  and  thence  to 
Santander.  The  English  ambassador  and  his  lady 
were  travelling  all  the  way  down,  and  taking  advan- 
tage of  their  position  prevented  any  search  in  their 
carriage,  or  the  identification  of  any  persons  therein, 
though  on  many  stations  the  Nation^il  Guards  showed 
a  great  desire  to  ascertain  the  personality  of  the  pas- 
sengers. At  Santander,  a  little  steam-tug  has  been 
hired  by  the  British  legation  to  proceed  on  a  special 
mission  to  St.-Jean-de-Luz,  and  unless  the  boat  be 
very  bad  and  ihe  Gulf  of  Biscaya  in  a  particularly 
violent  fit  of  temper,  our  amiable  duke  is  pretty  sure  to 
be  now  in  the  arms  of  his  still  more  amiable  duchess. 
I  am  heartily  glad  if  it  be  so,  and  I  hope  it  is.  But 
I  still  pity  the  mustaches  which  have  always  so  power- 
fully aided  the  handsome  Serrano  in  his  career.  There 
IS  always  something  humiliating  for  a  man  in  his  posi- 
tion, and  especially  for  a  soldier,  to  be  compelled  to 
disguise  himself  in  that  way.  I  fancy  I  could  never 
have  done  so  had  I  been  he,  or  I  should  have  felt  my- 
self more  like  an  adventurer  than  a  duke  and  general- 


COUNTESS  OF  MONTIJO  ON  MOB-RULE.     137 

issimo.  However — "  and  the  old  countess  shut  her 
suffering  eyes,  as  she  always  does  after  having  spoken 
for.  some  time,  and  when  they  have  become  fatigue<l  by 
light,  and  seemed  quite  absorbed  by  endless  reminis- 
cences—  probably  not  Spanish  only  —  which  the  story 
of  Serrano's  escape  must  naturally  have  suggested  to 
Iier. 


138  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

FEDERALIST    ELECTIONS     AND     FEDERALIST 
FESTIVITIES. 

THE  last  week  of  April  and  the  first  fortnight  of 
May  promised  no  end  of  interesting  events  in 
Madrid.  In  the  first  instance,  general  elections  were 
forthcoming,  and  the  Intransigentes  —  or  the  Irrecon- 
cilables,  the  ultra-Federalists,  the  Communists  (call 
them  as  you  like) — were  carrying  on  an  apparently 
sufficiently  serious  agitation  to  absorb  all  other  inter- 
ests. Then  there  was  also  coming  the  celebrated  anni- 
versary known  as  the  Dos  de  Mayo  (2d  of  May),  at 
which  thousands  and  thousands  of  armed  men  were 
expected  to  assemble,  and  some  sort  of  row  seemed  to 
be  quite  a  natural  anticipation.  And  last,  though  not 
least,  the  anniversary  of  San  Isidro,  the  rustic  patron 
of  Madrid,  was  speedily  approaching,  and  might  also 
have  given  a  good  opportunity  for  the  working  classes 
to  turn  their  gatherings  on  the  hill  beyond  the  dried- 
out  Manzanares  into  more  or  less  mischievous  demon- 
strations. All  those  who  do  not  know  Spaniards  an- 
ticipated great  bloodshed  on  all  these  occasions,  and  I 
knew  even  of  many  Spanish  families  having  spent  their 
last  onzas  to  be  able  to  escape  irom  the  capital  on  the 
approach  of  these  threatening  days.    Yet  it  is  doubtful 


ELECTIONS  AND  FESTIVITIES.  139 

whether  to  unbiassed  students  of  Spanish  character  the 
population  of  Madrid  has  ever  presented  a  more  inter- 
esting sight  —  a  more  wonderful  manifestation  of  a 
mixture  of  impulsiveness  and  self-command  by  which 
they  are  distinguished;  of  verbal  violence  and  mod- 
eration of  action ;  of  apparent  bloodthirstiness  and 
actual  aversion  for  bloodshed ;  of  intense  party  hatred 
and  almost  unlimited  respect  for  the  individuality  of 
their  opponents. 

For  fully  a  fortnight  after  the  Federalist  coup  d'^etat 
became  an  accomplished  fact,  and  the  government  of 
Figueras  and  Castelar  were  perfect  masters  of  Spain, 
the  Intransigentes  got  up  in  various  parts  of  Madrid 
daily  meetings  of  the  adherents  of  their  party  for  the 
purpose  of  duly  preparing  public  opinion  for  the  forth- 
coming elections.  Not  only  were  these  elections  to  be 
general  elections,  but  they  were  to  take  place  for  the 
purpose  of  giving  the  country  a  Constituent  Assembly, 
which  was  to  remodel  the  whole  governmental  machin- 
ery, to  abolish  everything  that  reminded  Spain  of  cen- 
tralized monarchies,  and  to  present  her  with  a  chalice 
overflowing  with  those  liberties  and  franchises  which 
have  been  dreamed  of  by  the  theoreticians  of  all  the 
Republican  schools  since  the  great  days  of  Athens  and 
Rome,  and  which  they  have  as  yet  labored  in  vain  to 
achieve. 

For  weeks  past  the  walls  of  Madrid  had  been  pla- 
carded with  all  sorts  of  manifestoes  and  declarations 
of  the  various  committees ;  and  in  all  of  them  the  gov- 
ernment, which  had  scarcely  established  itself,  was 
attacked  as  not  being  sufficiently  Republican,  and  sug- 
gestions were  thrown  out  that,  unless  certain  reforms 


140  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

indispensable  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Intransi- 
gentes^  were  carried,  the  government  should  be  imme- 
diately overthrown.  Among  these  reforms,  the  most 
prominent  were  the  immediate  proclamation  of  a  fed- 
eral republic;  the  abolition  of  the  council  of  state, 
and  the  reduction  of  the  number  of  ministries  and 
boards  forming  the  central  government,  and  incompat- 
ible with  the  Federal  principle;  the  separation  of 
church  and  state;  the  readjustment  of  the  budget 
(what  was  to  be  the  nature  of  this  readjustment  was 
not  explained)  ;  and  the  abohtion  of  lotteries  and  of 
the  penalty  of  death.  Such  were  the  starting-points 
of  the  Intransi gentes^  and  the  topics  upon  which  they 
dwelt  in  all  cafes^  tertulias,  and  popular  meetings,  the 
largest  of  which  was  that  of  the  4th  of  May.  At  two 
o'clock,  some  three  thousand  representatives  of  Spanish 
radicalism  assembled  in  the  vast  court-yard  between 
the  ex-royal  palace  and  the  ex-royal  stables.  The  very 
fact  of  the  Intransi gentes  selecting  a  retired  spot  of 
that  sort  showed  that  they  did  not  wish  to  produce 
any  excitement  in  town,  in*  which  case  they  would 
certainly  have  selected  the  Puerta  del  Sol  or  the 
Prado,  where  revolutions  were,  as  a  rule,  begun,  car- 
ried on,  and  ended.  It  may  be  also  that  the  govern- 
ment of  Seiior  Figueras  and  Castelar  had  suggested  to 
the  Intransigentes  the  advisability  of  their  retiring  to 
the  palace  court-yard ;  for  it  is  another  of  the  many 
things  peculiar  to  Spain  —  cosas  de  Espana  —  to  make 
political  (though  by  no  means  personal)  enemies  as 
comfortable  as  possible,  and  often  to  agree  with  them 
beforehand  about  the  general  arrangements  of  the 
contest. 


ELECTIONS  AND  FESTIVITIES.  141 

A  man  accustomed  to  meetings  of  representatives 
of  the  radical  party  in  other  countries  would  certainly 
Lave  expected  to  see  on  that  day  a  great  number  of 
■working  men  and  rough-looking  fellows  belonging  to 
that  nondescript  class  which  detests  prosperous  artisans 
still  more,  perhaps,  than  capitalists  or  nobles.  But  in 
Spain,  where  everything  is  different  from  all  that  is  to 
be  seen  in  any  other  country,  the  very  word  "radical" 
has  a  meaning  different  from  that  which  it  has  in  the 
rest  of  Europe.  The  Spanish  Radicals  are  Monarchists, 
about  one  shade  only  in  advance  of  the  Spanish  Con- 
servatives. In  fact,  they  would  represent  something 
similar  to  the  party  in  England  supporting  the  govern- 
ment of  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  their  organs  might  be  all 
most  efficiently  edited  by  any  of  the  Daily  Telegraph 
lions ;  while  the  Iiitransigentes  party  is  that  which  is 
radical  in  England  —  that  is  to  say,  which  is  led  by  men 
like  Mr.  Bradlaugh  and  Mr.  Odger. 

Nearly  all  of  those  present  belonged  —  at  least,  to 
judge  by  their  appearance  and  address  —  to  that  class 
of  society  from  which  government  clerks,  teachers, 
journalists,  lawyers,  commission  merchants,  and  simi- 
lar professions  are  recruited.  The  speeches  delivered 
were,  of  course,  of  a  very  fierce  nature,  though  a  good 
deal  of  this  fierceness  ought  to  be  put  to  the  account 
of  the  Spanish  language,  and  the  natural  violence  of 
Spanish  gesticulation.  They  resembled,  in  many  fea- 
tures, the  speeches  of  French  Communards  and  of 
Russian  Nihilists,  but  were  incomparably  less  sangui- 
nary than  either,  and  pleasantly  differed  from  both 
through  the  absence  of  any  personal  squabbles  be- 
tween the  speakers.    Tl^e  orators  explained  their  views 


142  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

as  to  what  federalism  meant,  and  what,  in  their  opinion, 
a  good  governmental  system  should  be.  They  indi- 
cated some  suspicion  they  entertained  that  the  cabinet 
was  not  sufficiently  converted  to  the  Federalist  theories; 
they  argued  that  the  best  way  to  improve  the  existing 
state  of  affairs  was  to  send  to  the  new  Assembly  none 
but  Intransigentes^  the  speakers  evidently  meaning 
that  they  were  about  the  fittest  men  to  send,  although 
they  did  not  make  any  positive  statement  to  that 
effect.  In  a  couple  of  hours  of  this  sort  of  speechi- 
fying, the  audience,  knowing  that  the  bull-fight  hour 
was  speedily  approaching,  —  lor  it  was  a  Sunday,  and 
consequently  again  a  bull-fight  day,  —  brought  the 
meeting  to  a  close,  and  the  w^hole  company  went 
straightforward  to  the  Plaza  de  Toros.  There  was  no 
procession,  no  noise  of  any  kind,  the  whole  gathering 
breaking  up  into  small  groups,  merging,  in  the  Puerta 
del  Sol  and  the  Calle  de  Alcala,  into  the  immense  and 
motley  stream  of  quite  a  Derby-like  excited  multitude, 
and  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour's  time  no  one  in  the  whole 
city  thought  any  more  of  Federalist  or  any  other  polit- 
ical theories,  the  whole  of  them  being  to  all  appearance 
entirely  drowned  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  innumerable 
niceties  of  the  tauromachia. 


Two  days  previous  to  the  meeting,  the  proceedings 
and  result  of  which  were  so  remarkably  peaceful  and 
innocent,  an  opportunity  of  a  totally-different  kind  was 
offered  to  the  mob  of  Madrid  of  making  a  disturbance, 
if  they  had  been  disposed  to  do  so.     It  was  on  the  2d 


ELECTIONS  AND  FESTIVITIES.  143 

of  May,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  anniversary  of  the 
liberation  of  Spain  from  the  French  invaders  —  a  day 
which  is  always  observed  with  great  festivity. 

The  reader  will  probably  remember  that  Murat  en- 
tered Madrid  in  March,  1808,  and  began  to  treat  the 
population  of  the  capital  in  the  way  in  which  the  gen- 
erals of  Bonaparte  treated  the  inhabitants  of  all  con- 
quered cities.  The  Spaniards  rose  against  him,  arid  a 
pretty  general  massacre  took  place  on  the  second  day 
of  May  of  the  same  year.  As  is  usually  the  case,  the 
memory  of  the  more  serious  suiFerings  inflicted  upon 
the  unhappy  people  vanished  from  the  national  mind ; 
but  one  scene  of  the  struggle  was  seized,  magnified, 
and  embellished  by  the  popular  imagination,  and  trans- 
formed into  one  of  the  most  brilliant  episodes  contained 
in  the  chronicle  of  national  Spanish  heroism.  Hun- 
dreds of  people  were  slaughtered  on  that  horribly 
memorable  day ;  but  three  men  only  survived  in  na- 
tional recollection  —  three  officers  of  artillery,  who, 
when  the  French  came  to  seize  the  cannons  under  their 
command,  refused  to  surrender  them,  and  were  cut  to 
pieces  at  their  posts.  Their  names  were  Luis  Daoiz, 
Pedro  Velarde,  and  Jacinto  Ruiz;  and  in  their  honor 
an  obelisk,  with  cypress  trees  planted  roun^  it,  was 
erected  in  the  centre  of  the  Prado,  and  forms  now  the 
Campo  de  la  Lealtad  (Field  of  Loyalty),  where  every 
year  the  anniversary  of  El  Dos  de  Mayo  is  celebrated. 
In  itself,  Murat's  massacre  at  Madrid  was  neither  more 
barbarous  nor  more  significant  than  numerous  similar 
deeds  performed  by  the  French  in  other  parts  of  the 
Peninsula ;  but  it  became  important  because  it  took 
place  in  the  capital  of  Spain,  was  consequently  more 


144  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

spoken  of,  and  seemed  to  have  furnished  the  final 
motive  for  English  intervention,  and  for  the  embarka- 
tion of  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  expedition.  It  be- 
came also  memorable  on  account  of  the  various  retali- 
ative  massacres  made  by  the  Spaniards  on  the  French 
in  different  provinces,  as  soon  as  the  news  of  the 
Madrid  events  reached  them.  Thus  in  Valencia  alone 
nearly  four  hundied  French  residents  seem  to  have 
been  slaughtered  in  the  bull-ring;  and  the  Spanish 
hatred  for  the  French,  which  has  now  greatly  cooled 
down,  but  which  rnged  with  great  fury  during  the 
whole  of  the  reign  of  Ferdinand  VII.,  had  its  root 
planted  in  the  heart  of  the  Spanish  nation  on  the  2d 
of  May,  1808. 

The  population  of  Madrid,  which  is  even  more  given 
to  sight-seeing  than  the  population  of  Paris,  will-  cer- 
tainly never  cense  to  celebrate  this  Dos  de  3fayo,  for 
it  is  most  jealous  even  about  the  observance  of  the 
endless  small  processions  and  festivities  of  which 
nearly  the  w^hole  of  the  Spanish  year  consists.  When 
there  is  a  crowned  head  at  Madrid,  the  sovereign  is 
always  bound  to  be  present  on  the  2d  of  May  at  the 
Campo  de  la  Lealtad ;  and  Amadco,  who  bad  nothing 
Spanishln  himself,  was  compelled  to  share  the  Spanish 
views  on  the  subject,  and  to  join  on  that  day  in  the  dem- 
onstrations by  which  French  usurpation  and  savagery 
were  stigmatized. 

Although  the  actors  taking  part  in  this  pageant 
change  every  year,  since  there  is  nearly  every  year 
some  radical  change  in  the  government  of  Spain,  the 
ceremony  itself  remains  substantially  the  same.  On 
each  of  the  four  sides  of  the  obelisk,  temporary  altars 


ELECTIONS  AND  FESTIVITIES.  145 

are  erected,  and  handsomely  decorated.  Masses  are 
uninterruptedly  served  at  each  of  these  altars,  from 
six  in  the  morning  till  two  in  the  afternoon,  when  the 
military  procession  begins,  and  every  one  entitled  to 
wear  anything  li*ke  an  official  garment  is  compelled  to 
appear  in  the  cortege^  and  to  march  past  the  memorial. 
The  Spanish  uniforms,  the  dresses  of  the  Spanish 
women,  and  the  color  of  the  Spanish  sky,  are  all  bril- 
liant enough  to  make  the  sight  one  of  the  most  attrac- 
tive that  can  be  seen  in  Spain.  Even  in  1873,  when 
there  was  no  royalty,  no  gilded  carnages  and  gold- 
embroitlered  courtiers,  this  popular  manifestation  had 
still  something  very  imposing  about  it.  But  with  all 
that,  the  procession  was  not  only  thoroughly  harmless, 
from  a  political  point  of  view,  but  had  lost  even  all  the 
dangers  which  it  some  time  ago  presented  to  such 
French  lookers-on  as  may  have  ventured  into  the 
street.  I  saw  myself  very  many  of  them  on  the  Prado 
the  last  time  that  ceremony  took  place ;  I  heard  them 
talking  French ;  I  talked  French  myself,  and  there-was 
not  a  single  instance  of  any  hostile  demonstration  on 
the  part  either  of  the  people  at  large,  or  of  the  soldiers 
taking  part  in  the  proceedings. 

The  Republican  authorities  did  not  seem  much  dis- 
posed to  join  the  procession.  At  all  events,  except 
Seiior  Castelar,  I  did  not  see  any  member  of  the  gov- 
ernment. Seiior  Figueras  was  still  mourning  the  death 
of  his  wife,  while  Senor  Pi  y  Margall  and  Senor  Sal- 
meron  had  intimated  that  their  philosophical  views  and 
principles  did  not  permit  them  to  take  part  in  any  re- 
ligious ceremony.  But  there  were  quite  enough  of  all 
sorts  of  municipal  authorities  and  generals  to  form  a 
10 


146  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

tolerably-brilliant  head  to  the  procession.  Another  fea- 
ture which  gave  it  a  rather  impressive  character  was 
the  presence  of  a  large  number  of  invalids,  children, 
and  old  men  and  women  —  all  of  them  relatives  or 
representatives  of  those  massacred  by  Murat,  and  now 
ranged  in  marching  order  at  the  head  of  the  troops. 
The  regiments  attending  were  not  numerous,  as  the 
garrison  of  Madrid  consisted  just  then  of  very  few 
troops;  but  the  National  Guards  turned  out  in  strong 
battalions,  all  the  more  characteristic  as  every  man  in 
them  was  dressed  according  to  his  personal  taste,  the 
uniform  consisting  exclusively  of  a  little  red  cap.  Be- 
ing arranged  in  position  alternately  with  the  regular 
battalions,  they  greatly  enlivened  the  picture  as  the 
procession  marched  from  the  Plaza  Mayor  through  the 
Puerta  del  Sol  and  the  Calle  de  Alcala  to  the  Salon  del 
Prado.  The  Salon,  which  is  but  little  shorter  than  the 
popular  part  of  Rotten  Row,  and  rather  wider,  was 
covered  with  one  gigantic  awning,  which,  so  to  speak, 
concentrated  the  various  elements  of  the  immense  pic- 
ture, and  made  it  really  grand  to  look  at.  The  numer- 
ous bands  playing  funeral  marches  added  solemnity  to 
the  spectacle.  The  majority  of  the  bands  of  the  regu- 
lar regiments  restricted  themselves  to  the  Riego  march, 
but  one  or  two  of  them  seemed  to  know  something 
about  Chopin's  and  Beethoven's  funeral  marches;  and 
if  the  musical  part  of  the  ceremony  had  been  limited 
to  bands  of  the  regulars  only,  the  effect  would  have 
been  very  imposing  indeed,  especially  to  those  who 
preserved  the  consciousness  that  these  thousands  and 
thousands  of  ragged  volunteers  had  the  power  to  do 
any  mischief  they  pleased.      But  a  smile  unwillingly 


ELECTIONS  AND  FESTIVITIES.  147 

appeared  on  the  faces  of  a  good  many  of  the  uncon- 
cerned observers,  when  volunteer  battalions  passed 
with  then'  bands  furiously  blustering  the  Marseillaise, 
And  as  the  volunteers  were  incomparably  more  numer- 
ously represented  than  the  regular  troops,  the  3Iar- 
seillaise  —  apparently  the  only  march  their  bands 
were  capable  of  playing  —  became  quite  predominant 
throughout  the  proceedings  of  the  day,  and  the  Span- 
iards did  not  seem  to  be  cognizant  of  the  incongruity 
of  their  thus  conducting  such  an  essentially  anti-French 
ceremony  to  the  tune  of  that  immortal  song  of  Rouget 
de  L'IsIe,  to  which,  to  a  great  extent,  was  owing  every- 
thing they  had  to  complain  of  on  the  part  of  France, 
including  Murat  himself. 

The  ceremony  did  not  last  long.  Some  sort  of  short 
religious  service  having  been  celebrated,  the  regiments 
and  the  National  Guards  marched  past,  and  in  about 
a  couple  of  hours  Madrid  assumed  again  its  usual  as- 
pect, without  the  occurrence  of  the  slightest  disturb- 
ance. The  more  I  saw  of  Spanish  popular  meetings, 
the  more  I  became  convinced  that,  as  a  mass,  they  are 
possessed  of  a  self-command  that  would  make  it  quite 
unnatural  for  them  to  depart,  in  any  degree,  from  the 
object  for  which  they  had  assembled.  If  they  join  in 
a  religious  or  national  procession,  they  do  so  in  the 
same  stern  and  serious  manner  in  which  they  would 
attend  an  execution.  The  bull-fight  is  the  only  festiv- 
ity to  which,  since  time  immemorial,  they  have  been 
accustomed  to  proceed  in  a  joyous,  noisy  sort  of  way. 
With  that  exception,  all  their  processions  have  always 
had  a  religious,  frequently  a  mournful  character,  which 
they  still  invariably  retain.     I  have  been  told  over  and 


148  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

over  again  of  instances  in  which  people,  having  de- 
cided upon  the  advisability  of  putting  an  end  to  some 
one's  life,  have  marched  quietly  and  solemnly  to  the 
house  of  the  man,  murdered  him  in  perfectly  cold  blood, 
and  returned  just  as  quietly  and  solemnly  to  their  re- 
spective homes,  without  any  of  the  excitement  which 
is  to  be  seen  on  the  occurrence  of  much  less  sanguinary 
popular  proceedings  in  other  countries. 

In  this  way  people  who  apprehended  great  dangers 
in  Madrid,  both  from  the  Intransigentes  and  fi  om  the 
gathering  of  the  National  Guards,  had  to  transfer  their 
apprehensions  to  the  general  elections,  which  were  to 
last  during  four  days,  beginning  on  the  10th  of  May, 
and  which,  I  am  perfectly  certain,  will  remain  among 
the  dullest  experiences  of  my  life. 


Madrid  was  divided  into  ten  electoral  districts,  each 
of  them  containing  some  ten-  or  twelve  polling-places, 
and  in  every  one  of  them  the  same  monotonous 
proceedings  were  going  on  during  all  the  four  days. 
In  some  large  building  —  a  concert-room,  or  an  empty 
shop,  behind  a  table  covered  with  red  or  green  cloth, 
with  a  wooden  urn  placed  on  it  —  sat  a  returning  of- 
ficer with  two  secretaries,  two  civil  guards  posted  at 
the  door  completing  the  official  arrangement.  Lazily, 
one  by  one,  dropped  in  the  electors,  apparently  quite 
disgusted  at  the  bother  imposed  upon  them.  There 
were  polling-places  in  which  during  the  whole  day  not 
more  than  a  dozen  electors  appeared,  and  the  returning 
officer,  his  secretaries  and  his  sentries,  were  reduced  to 


ELECTIONS  AND  FESTIVITIES.         149 

passing  the  time  by  dozing  at  their  posts  daring  the 
whole  of  the  four  days.  Of  election  struggles,  as  car- 
ried on  in  England  or  America,  Spaniards  seem  to 
have  no  idea,  and  elections  could  hardly  ever  take  in 
that  country  the  character  they  have  assumed  with  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race.  Of  electioneering  bribery  and  cor- 
ruption there  is  not  the  slightest  trace  in  the  whole 
of  the  Peninsula,  except  when  the  government  inter- 
feres. But,  on  the  other  hand,  Spanish  elections  pre- 
sent peculiarities  of  their  own.  First  of  all,  in  a  good 
many  cases,  the  party  which  feels  itself  to  be  in  the  mi- 
nority abstains  from  voting  altogether;  and  this  absten- 
tion, with  the  Spaniard,  is  meant  to  convey  a  kind  of 
silent  protest  against  the  order  of  things  which  may  be 
subsequently  established  by  the  newly-elected  body. 
They  seem  to  have  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  it  is 
both  dangerous  and  useless  to  carry  on  political  strug- 
gles by  means  of  elections —  useless,  because  the  over- 
throw of  their  opponents  might  be  made  much  more 
easy  by  out-of-door  movements  than  by  parliamentary 
struggles,  and  dangerous  because  election  struggles  in 
Spain,  when  a  reality,  have  been,  as  a  rule,  carried  on 
at  the  point  of  the  knife.  Consequently,  the  Span- 
iard much  more  prefers  sitting  in  his  cafe,  smoking  his 
cigarette,  and  talking  politics  with  his  friends  until  his 
opponents  are  in  power,  when  he  can  combine  with  all 
those  out  of  power,  and  who  have,  therefore,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  chronic  cause  for  discontent. 

On  the  14th  of  May,  at  six  P,  M.,  these  unbearably 
dull  elections  throughout  Si)ain  were  closed,  and  their 
result  was  another  victory  for  the  Republican  govern- 
ment.    Out  of  three  hundred  and  eighty-seven  newly- 


150  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS, 

elected  deputies,  fully  three  hundred  were  in  favor  of 
the  state  of  things  established  by  the  Republican  lead- 
ers on  the  morrow  of  Amadeo's  abdication.  The 
Conservatives  abstained  from  voting  almost  every- 
where, and  in  Madrid  itself  only  one  fourth  of  the 
electors  exercised  their  right.  In  many  of  these  cases, 
where  the  electors  did  not  take  advantage  of  their 
right,  the  returning  officers,  annoyed  at  having  sat  for 
several  days  for  no  better  purpose  than  that  of  seeing 
one  or  two  dozen  men  throw  their  bulletins  into  the 
urn,  invented  a  rather  curious  way  of  making  the  thing 
look  more  decent.  They  put  into  the  urns  several 
hundred  bulletins  of  their  own,  without,  however, 
affecting  in  any  way  the  result  of  the  election,  the  sup- 
plementary bulletins  being  equally  divided  between  the 
various  candidates. 

Since  the  great  bulk  of  the  Monarchists  of  all  shades 
had  resolved  to  abstain  from  voting,  it  was  evident  that 
none  but  Republicans  could  be  elected:  out  of  the 
three  hundred  and  eighty-seven  deputies,  there  were 
returned  only  thirty-live  Conservatives  sent  by  distant 
rural  localities,  not  sufficiently  influenced  by  the  party- 
leaders  of  Madrid,  and  some  fifty  Intransigentes^ 
elected  chiefly  in  the  large  towns  where  the  working- 
man  element  was  pfedominant.  This  last  point  was 
very  important  in  many  respects.  It  was,  in  the  first 
place,  a  defeat  of  the  Intransigentes^  and,  in  the  second, 
it  partly  reconciled  the  politicians  of  Europe  with  the 
idea  of  a  federal  republic.  When  the  word  federal- 
ism was  first  uttered  in  Spain,  all  the  foreign  dealers 
in  politics  were  greatly  alarmed.  They  did  not  quite 
understand  the  meaning  of  the  term,  but  it  did  not 


ELECTIONS'  AND  FESTIVITIES.  151 

suitthera.  They  did  not  wish  even  to  listen  to  the  ar- 
gument, that  Spanish  federalism  is  founded  upon  exactly 
the  same  principle  as  that  on  which  the  Swiss  and  Amer- 
ican republics  are  based.  It  simply  appeared  to  them 
as  a  new  ism^  and  they  thought  they  had  had  quite 
enough  of  is'ins  already.  But  when  the  elections  were 
concluded,  and  they  clearly  saw  that  very  respectable 
men  were  amongst  the  federalist  deputies,  the  British 
and  Continental  politicians  concluded  that  the  devil 
must,  after  all,  not  be  so  black  as  he  is  painted.  In  this 
way,  the  idea  of  a  federal  republic  began  to  rise  in  credit 
in  the  European  political  market. 

The  Intransigentes^  defeated  in  these  elections,  and 
apparently  conscious  of  their  inability  to  manage  any- 
thing in  Madrid,  got  up  small  23rovincial  risings,  every 
one  of  which  ended  in  more  or  less  sanguinary  fights 
(Alcoy,  Malaga,  Cartagena,  &c.)  ;  but  the  Republican 
government  of  Madrid,  though  recasting  itself  almost 
every  month,  managed  still  to  subsist,  notwithstanding 
a  perfect  national  bankruptcy,  the  utter  break-down 
of  the  whole  administrative  machinery,  the  constantly 
increasing  progress  of  the  Carlist  rising,  and  little  com- 
fortable incidents  like  that  of  the  "  Virginius." 


The  last  chance  left  to  me  of  discovering  any  actual 
disturbance  at  Madrid,  could  evidently  present  itself 
only  in  connection  with  the  popular  festival  of  San 
Isidro,  which  was  to  take  place  on  the  morrow  of  the 
conclusion  of  the  election,  the  15th  of  May.  But  even 
this  gathering  turned  out  to  be  a  failure.     Formerly, 


152  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS, 

when  religious  feeling  was  more  intense  in  Spain,  and 
superstition  more  generally  rampant,  San  Isidro  was  a 
very  much  reverenced  individual.  A  vast  number  of 
Madrilefios  and  Madiilenas  of  aTl  classes  used  to  turn 
out  to  the  hill  beyond  the  Manzanares  River,  where  his 
hermitage  is  situated.  But,  nowadays,  when  the  male 
population  of  Madrid  has  become  more  atheistic  than 
that  of  any  other  capital,  only  a  very  small  gathering 
could  be  expected  on  the  occasion  of  such  an  exclu- 
sively religious  festivity.  True  that  the  electoral  urns 
were  not  yet  closed  when  a  considerable  number  of 
vehicles,  thickly  packed  with  representatives  of  the 
fairer  sex,  drove  along  the  Calle  Mayor  to  the  Toledo 
bridge  to  attend  what  is  called  the  Yispera^  and  that 
early  next  morning  there  were  also  a  number  of  car- 
riages driving  that  way;  but  this  movement  was  made 
by  the  female  population  chiefly  with  a  view  to  indulge 
in  mutual  contemplation  of  their  costumes  and  head- 
gears. They  returned  to  Madrid  without  alighting 
from  their  carriages,  and  the  festivity  does  not  seem  to 
have  presented  even  the  usual  attraction  to  artists  and 
sight-seeking  foreigners,  who  formerly  flocked  to  it  in 
numbers,  to  look  at  the  costumes  and  dances  of  the 
peasantry,  and  to  listen  to  their  songs.  All  that  I  saw 
this  year  was  a  number  of  booths,  in  which  clumsy  clay 
images  of  the  saints  were  sold  at  high  prices,  and  a 
number  of  eating-bouses,  which  spread  pestilential 
smells  for  a  mile  around.  The  commemorative  service 
going  on  all  day  long  in  the  hermitage  was  almost  un- 
attended, and  the  beggars  exhibiting  their  deformities 
at  the  entrance  of  the  chapel  seemed  to  do  very  little 
I.  asiness. 


ELECTIONS  AND  FESTIVITIES.  153 

The  story  of  San  Isidro  is  pretty  much  like  all  the 
stories  of  Spanish  saints,  with  the  only  difference,  per- 
haps, that  he  was  not  a  general  dealer  in  divine  and 
miraculous  things,  but  restricted  his  activity  chiefly  to 
the  sphere  of  agriculture  and  medicine.  He  was  a  la- 
borer by  profession,  and  used,  instead  of  working  at 
his  plough,  to  remain  sitting  in  the  fields,  in  contem- 
plative ecstasy.  The  angels  seemed  to  appreciate 
very  much  such  a  highly  intellectual  disposition  in  a 
laborer,  and  so  they  came  down  to  him,  conversed  with 
him,  and  did  his  work  for  him.  It  w^as  in  this  way  that 
the  environs  of  Madrid  w^ere  made  fertile,  notwith- 
standing their  otherwise  very  inconvenient  character. 
He  used  also,  with  the  aid  of  the  same  angels,  to  render 
a  good  many  services  to  his  fellows-laborers.  He  caused, 
for  instance,  springs  of  water  to  rise  wherever  there 
was  need  of  them,  like  Sir  Richard  Wallace  in  Paris, 
and  the  Cattle  Trough  Association  in  London.  He  also 
managed  to  restore  dead  animals  to  life,  avert  plagues, 
and  render  all  sorts  of  such  acceptable  services.  On 
one  occasion  he  seems  even  to  have  most  beneficially 
interfered  with  the  military  affairs  of  his  country ;  but 
that  was  about  two  hundred  years  after  his  death, 
when  Alonzo  VIH.  was  very  much  annoyed  by  an 
arrangement  the  Moors  had  made  somewhere  near 
Toledo,  to  prevent  his  passing  with  his  array  by  a  road 
he  wished  to  take.  San  Isidro,  noticing  the  state  of 
affairs  from  above,  came  down  and  showed  Alonzo  a 
by-path  by  which  he  was  enabled  to  proceed,  and, 
subsequently,  to  slaughter  avast  number  of  the  infidels. 
All  this,  taken  together,  has  naturally  elevated  the  lazy 
plough-boy  to  the  capacity  of  a  great  saint,  and  to  the 


154  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

responsible  position  of  patron  of  Madrid.  Since  then 
he  has  given  up  agricultural  pursuits,  and  having  taken 
to  medicine,  has  now  for  something  like  eight  hundred 
years  been  performing  all  sorts  of  most  remarlcable 
cures,  having  had  among  his  patients  a  large  number 
of  the  highest  nobility  and  several  royal  persons.  Upon 
the  whole,  San  Isidro  seems  to  be  a  very  accommodat- 
ing and  useful  kind  of  saiut ;  but  it  appears  that  occa- 
sionally he  shows  a  disposition  to  get  rather  angry. 
For  instance,  a  lady-in-waiting  of  one  of  the  Queens 
of  Spain,  in  an  access  of  kissing  ecstasy,  bit  off  one  of 
his  toes,  and  was  immediately  deprived  of  the  natural 
use  of  her  tongue.  I  thought  the  punishment  a  rather 
hard  one,  since  it  was  more  than  a  tooth  for  a  tooth ; 
but  the  English  friend  who  told  me  this  story  seemed 
to  have  taken  another  view  of  the  matter,  saying  it  was 
a  great  pity  the  body  of  San  Isidro  could  not  be  brought 
over  to  London,  where  it  could  be  turned  to  great  ad- 
vantage by  making  some  of  the  English,  statesmen  and 
M.  P.'s  lunch  upon  suitably  disguised  toes  of  the  saint. 


ON  THE  SILVER  MOUNTAIN,  155 


CHAPTER  IX. 

ON    THE     TOP    OF    THE    SILVER   MOUNTAIN". 

MEDITATING  on  the  uncertainty  of  all  human 
arrangements,  I  ofien  thought  that,  should  peo- 
ple at  large  ever  give  up  fighting  and  making  revolu- 
tions, and  generally  begin  to  behave  themselves  as 
citizens  of  orderly  communities,  the  first  result  of  such 
a  change  would  be  the  abolition  of  that  beautiful  insti- 
tution known  under  the  name  of  "  our  special."^  These 
indefatigable  animals  would  then  become  quite  as  use- 
less as  post-horses  are  now  in  countries  well  provided 
with  railways.  I  am  afraid  that  an  improvement  in 
the  general  condition  of  the  world's  political  affairs 
would  even  greatly  reduce  the  large  size  of  English 
and  American  newspapers.  For  what  on  earth  would 
then  fill  up  the  columns  which  are  now  occupied  by 
reports  of  terrific  slaughters,  upsetting  of  governments, 
wholesale  executions,  and  kindred  matters?  Except 
the  prices  of  various  articles  of  commerce,  and  the  rise 
and  fall  of  public  funds,  there  would  be  absolutely 
nothing  to  communicate  from  a  well-regulated  country. 
Fancy,  for  instance,  an  Italian  or  a  Spanish  correspond- 
ent writing  from  Edinburgh  or  Glasgow.  Why,  he 
would  not  have  material  for  half  a  column  in  a  whole 
year.     Even  in  London  the  correspondents  for  conti- 


156  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

nental  journals  seldom  find  oftener  than  once  a  month 
a  subject  whiph  is  likely  to  have  any  interest  at  all 
in  a  distant  foreign  land.  So  intense  indeed  is  the 
consciousness  of  the  correspondent  of  the  present  day 
that  his  place  is  exclusively  where  people  are  cutting 
each  other's  throats,  that  whenever  he  happens  to  have 
a  fortnight's  quiet  time  he  feels  at  once  that  he  is  out 
of  his  element,  and  begins  to  expect  a  telegram  order- 
ing him  to  find  out  some  less  monotonous  place,  or 
else  to  return  to  the  London  office  to  be  placed  on  the 
half-pay  list. 

I  had  scarcely  spent  a  few  weeks  at  Madrid  when  I 
began  to  have  an  uneasy  consciousness  that  it  was  not 
the  proper  place  to  stop  at.  The  bull-fights,  the  Dos 
de  Mayo,  San  Isidro,  and  especially  the  utterly  peace- 
ful character  of  the  elections,  suggested  that  the  Intran- 
sigentes  were  losing  ground,  and  that  until  at  least  a 
couple  of  months  were  over  nothing  particularly  "  in- 
teresting" could  be  expected.  At  the  same  time  news 
arrived  from  the  north  that  the  Carlists  under  Dorre- 
garay  had  achieved  a  great  victory  at  Eraoul,  and  that 
Don  Carlos  himself  was  about  to  enter  the  land  he 
claims  the  right  to  reign  over.  It  became  at  once  clear 
that  I  should  soon  have  to  bid  farewell  to  the  Prado, 
and  to  all  the  other  attractions  of  Madrid,  and  to  go 
back  again  to  the  mountains.  And  my  apprehensions 
were  fully  justified,  for  within  a  fiew  hours  a  telegram 
to  that  purpose  was  placed  in  my  hands. 

Carlist  bands,  however,  had  advanced  so  far  into  the 
country  since  I  left  them,  that  to  return  via  Yitoria 
was  a  thing  no  more  to  be  thought  of,  all  communica- 
tion that  way  being  completely  cut  offi    The  next  near- 


ON  THE  SILVER  MOUNTAIN.  157 

est  route  was  to  go  to  Santander,  and  thence  by- 
steamer  to  Bayonne.  This  journey,  though  a  longer 
one,  could  at  all  events  be  made  without  any  interrup- 
tion, except  that  caused  by  the  scarcity  of  steamers 
running  betw^ecn  the  Spanish  and  French  ports.  At 
Santander,  for  instance,  I  had  to  wait  for  two  days  to 
go  by  a  tug,  loaded  with  gunpowder  for  the  Spanish 
troops,  and  with  a  quantity  of  petroleum  for  some 
Bilbao  merchants.  And  after  a  journey  of  many  hours, 
in  company  with  a  volcano  of  that  description,  I  had 
to  wait  another  three  days  before  I  could  get  at  Bilbao 
a  steamboat  bound  to  Bayonne.  This  time  the  ship 
had,  much  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  passengers,  neither 
petroleum  nor  gunpowder  in  its  cargo  ;  but  it  had  a 
captain  and  a  crew  with  a  great  proclivity  for  sleeping, 
and  as  the  journey  was  to  be  made  at  night,  all  of 
them  naturally  went  to  bed,  with  the  exception  of  the 
man  at  the  wheel,  who  dozed  at  his  post,  and  was  only 
kept  awake  by  the  rather  clever  expedient  resorted  to 
by  two  Andalusian  caballeros^  who  were  all  the  way 
either  talking  or  singing  Andalusian  ballads  to  him,  or 
else  treating  him  to  cigarettes.  But  as  the  night  was 
a  beautiful  one,  our  journey  was  performed  in  a  way 
sufficiently  pleasant  to  leave  behind  nothing  but  very 
bright  reminiscences. 

Arriving  at  Bayonne,  I  learned  that  the  battle  of 
Eraoul  w^as  a  real  fight,  not  an  invention  of  the  over- 
sanguine  Carlists.  I  learned  also  that  Don  Carlos  re- 
ally intended  to  enter  Spain,  and  that  his  horses  were 
all  in  readiness  at  Bayonne,  and  his  ordnance  officers 
gathered  around  him.  The  day  of  his  entry  was,  how- 
ever, not  yet  determined.     All  that  I  could  ascertain 


158  SPAIN  AND    THE  SPANIARDS. 

from  the  best-informed  persons  was,  that  "the  great 
event"  would  take  place  very  soon,  and  that  I  should 
keep  myself  hi  readiness  to  witness  it.  I  was  also  in- 
formed that  the  staff  would  be  a  very  brilliant  one, 
and  the  horses  magnificent.  Knowing  a  Spaniard's 
weakness  for  what  is  called  keeping  up  appearances,  I 
took  every  care  to  ascertain  what  was  the  proper  way 
to  fit  one's  self  out  for  the  occasion,  and  was  made  to  un- 
derstand that  a  gentleman  on  the  staff  of  Su  Magestad^ 
the  King  of  all  the  S pains,  should  have  at  least  two 
horses.  One  should  be  a  strong  and  showy  animal,  fit 
for  hard  marches  and  triumphal  entries.  The  other 
should  be  a  light  horse,  no  matter  of  what  appearance, 
but  thoroughly  fit  for  securing  the  escape  of  its  master 
when  necessary.  The  faster  such  a  horse  is,  the  more 
invaluable  may  it  prove  under  special  circumstances. 
Grasping  the  hint,  I  set  out  at  once  in  search  of  a  couple 
of  animals  of  that  description,  and  during  four  or  five 
days  frequently  lamented  the  absence  at  Bayonne  of 
anything  like  those  useful  columns  of  advertisements 
in  which  one  can  make  known  to  the  world  any  want 
one  may  have  —  to  begin  with,  that  of  obtaining  a 
kind-hearted  wife,  and  to  end  with  anything  within 
the  range  of  ascertained  objects.  Ultimately  I  found, 
however,  what  I  wanted,  notwithstanding  the  scarcity 
of  ridable  animals  at  that  time  in  Bayonne.  The  fact 
is,  that  the  Carlists  had  bought  up  everything,  and 
wretched  hacks  for  which  eight  or  ten  j^ounds  at  some 
village  fair  would  have  been  thought  a  high  price,  were 
now  impudently  valued  at  five  times  that  amount. 

HapjDily  enough,  a  remnant  of  the  old  Moro-Iberian 
love  for  ostentation  causes  Spaniards  greatly  to  prefer 


ON   THE  SILVER  MOUNTAIN,  159 

Stallions  to  either  horses  or  mares  for  riding.  They 
ride  a  horse  only  when  a  stallion  is  not  to  be  ob- 
tained, and  seem  to  prefer  riding  a  donkey  to  riding  a 
mare.  Consequently,  mares  were  to  be  had  more 
easily  at  Tarbes  and  in  the  Landes  markets,  and  I  dis- 
covered two  which  answered  the  requirements  of  the 
case  in  a  very  fair  way. 

Having  harnessed  them  in  the  best  way  I  could  at  a 
place  like  Bayonne,  and  equipped  myself  as  comforta- 
bly as  my  purse  allowed,  I  started  once  more  for  the 
little  village  of  Urdax,  where  preparations  for  the  re- 
ception of  Don  Carlos  were  going  on. 

Somehow  or  other,  the  police  watch  on  the  frontier 
was  considerably  slackened  during  my  absence,  and,  if 
not  Spaniards,  at  all  events  Frenchmen  and  foreigners, 
were  allowed  to  cross  the  frontier  pretty  freely  on  the 
simple  exhibition  of  their  passes,  and  a  categorical 
declaration  that  they  did  not  wish  to  make  any  detour 
either  by  the  Atlantic  or  the  Mediterranean.  So  no 
obstacle  was  put  to  my  crossing  the  Doncharinea 
bridge,  and  the  French  patrol  on  it,  wishing  me  hon 
voyage^  looked  quite  jocularly  at  me  as  I  stepped  on  to 
Spanish  soil,  and  the  Carlist  outposts  surrounded  me 
and  carried  me  oif  to  a  little  inn  occupied  by  their 
commander. 

The  officer,  on  seeing  the  Carlist  passport  I  had  once 
more  secured,  received  me  in  a  most  friendly  manner, 
and  on  reading  my  name,  exclaimed,  "O,  I  have  a  par- 
cel for  you ! " 

"  A  parcel  ?  "  said  I.     "  Where  from  ?  " 

"I  don't  know,"  he  answered.  And  from  a  heap  of 
all  sorts  of  luggage  and  odds  and  ends,  lyin^  in  a 


160  SPAIN  AND  THE  SPANIARDS. 

corner  of  his  room,  he  picked  up  a  little  leather  bag, 
with  a  couple  of  shirts,  some  other  articles  of  toilet, 
and  lots  of  London  letters  and  newspapers,  which  had 
been  sent  out  to  me  some  six  weeks  previous,  when  I 
gave  the  old  boot-cleaning  colonel  a  note  for  Bayonne. 
The  bag  was  not  locked,  and  as  a  good  many  of  the 
Carlists  who  were  around  us  had  scarcely  any  shirts  at 
all  on  them,  I  was  very  agreeably  astonished  to  find 
that  neither  of  mine  was  missing,  and  expressed  my 
satisfaction  to  the  officer. 

"Do  you  find  anything  to  surprise  you  in  that?" 
was  his  retort.  "  I  hope,  cahallero,  you  never  believed 
that  any  property,  however  valuable,  could  be  lost  if  it 
was  intrusted  to  good  Carlists  ?  " 

It  was  clear  that  a  stern  denial  of  any  thought  of 
this  sort  was,  on  my  part,  the  only  possible  answer 
under  such  circumstances. 


Urdax  looked  now  quite  dificrent  from  what  it  was 
when  I  first  visited  it.  It  was  still  the  same  little 
loop-hole,  so  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  mountains  as 
to  be  almost  hidden  from  the  eyes  of  any  traveller  who 
enters  the  picturesque  valley  of  Bastan.  But  it  was 
peopled  now  with  no  end  of  fashionable  Carlist  war- 
riors awaiting  the  entry  of  "the  king"  into  his  do- 
minions. From  a  military  point  of  view,  Urdax  is 
quite  an  impossible  place,  for  no  force  could  defend  it- 
self there  from  the  attack  of  an  enemy  holding  the 
surrounding  heights.  But  the  Carlists,  always  relying 
upon  their  good  legs  and  sharp  eyes,  have  from  the 


ON  THE   SILVER  MOUNTAIN.  161 

outset  selected  that  little  village  as  one  of  their  flwor- 
ite  resorts.  It  was  within  easy  reach  of  the  smugglers 
canying  arms  and  ammunition  across  the  frontier,  and 
this  alone  was  quite  sufficient  to  render  the  otherwise 
unsuitable  village  one  of  the  most  important  starting- 
points  of  Carlist  operations.  Whenever  the  enemy 
approached,  the  Voluntarios  de  Carlos  VIL  stationed 
at  the  village  climbed  the  hills,  and  took  up  their  posi- 
tion on  them,  if  they  fielt  strong  enough  ;  otherwise 
they  ran  away  along  the  French  frontier  to  Pefia  de 
Plata  and  other  inaccessible  mountain  refuges. 

Towards  the  end  of  May,  some  Legitimists  at  Paris 
got  up  a  party  of  about  a  dozen  young  noblemen  to 
form  the  nucleus  of  a  squadron  of  body-guards  for 
Don  Carlos.  The  squadron  was  to  be  formed  on  the 
spot,  and  the  organization  and  command  of  it  were 
placed  in  the  hands  of  Count  d' Alcantara,  a  Belgian 
gentleman  of  Spanish  extraction,  as  amiable  and  val- 
iant a  man  as  one  could  wish  to  meet.  There  was 
scarcely  any  officer  under  his  orders  who  did  not  bear 
some  sort  of  title,  from  Chevalier  to  Marquis  inclusive, 
and  every  one  of  them  was  dressed  and  equipped  with 
all  the  luxury  Parisian  outfitters  were  capable  of  sug- 
gesting. But  it  was  impossible  for  these  gentlemen 
to  remain  waiting  for  Don  Carlos  at  Bayonne,  as  even 
if  they  concealed  their  uniforms  and  arms,  splendid 
chargers  would  soon  betray  their  intentions  to  the 
French  police.  Consequently  they  were  as  quickly  as 
possible  despatched,  with  arms  and  baggage,  over  the 
frontier  to  Urdax,  where  they  were  to  await  the  "great 
event."  Their  dark  green  Hussar  uniform,  richly 
trimmed  with  gold  lace,  their  white  Bedouin  bour- 
11 


162  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

nouses,  their  Astrakhan  shakos  with  a  kind  of  Hunga- 
rian phmie  on  them,  were  all  very  attractive,  and 
w^ould  have  been  probably  very  imposing  at  the  head- 
quarters of  some  well-organized  and  victorious  army. 
But,  amid  the  wilderness  of  the  Navarre  mountains 
and  the  rags  of  Navarre  volunteers,  t]}ey  had  some- 
thing very  incongruous  about  them,  and  suggested,  I 
don't  know  why,  the  idea  of  Paris  or  Boulevard  cav- 
alry lost  in  these  wild  regions.  Still  tliey  relieved  the 
dullness  and  loneliness  of  Urdax,  as  did  also  the  pres- 
ence of  a  number  of  other  Carlist  officers,  both  Span- 
ish and  foreign,  assembled  here  on  the  occasion  of  the 
consecration  of  tlie  fort  Peiia  de  Plata. 

Just  in  front  of  the  French  viHage  Sare  rises  a  steep 
mountain,  some  two  thousand  five  hundred  feet  high, 
called  Pena  de  Plata  (Silver  Mountain),  on  account  of 
the  silvery  reflection  produced  by  its  rocky  top  under 
the  play  of  the  rays  of  the  sun.  The  line  of  the  Fran- 
co-Spanish frontier  passes  through  the  very  summit  of 
that  height,  cutting  it,  like  a  pear,  into  two  equal  parts, 
and  giving  one  moiety  of  it  to  each  of  the  neighbors. 
The  Carlists  conceived  the  plan  of  erecting  a  fort  right 
on  the  top  of  the  Pena,  and  to  build  it  close  to  the 
very  line  of  demarcation  between  the  two  countries, 
so  that  no  attack  on  the  fort  would  be  possible  with- 
out projectiles  being  throw^n  on  French  soil.  At  the 
same  time  the  garrison  of  the  fort  could,  of  course,  fire 
into  Spain  as  much  as  it  pleased,  without  exposing  it- 
self to  any  breach  of  international  law.  The  scheme, 
as  far  as  it  went,  was  carried  out  with  fiiU  success.  A 
strong  fort  has  been  built,  armed  with  several  cannons, 
and  provided  with  plenty  of  ammunition.    It  is  capable 


ON  THE   SILVER  MOUNTAIN.  163 

of  holding  a  garrison  of  three  hundred  men,  and  of 
sheltering,  in  case  of  necessity,-  certainly  twice  that 
number ;  and,  unless  the  supply  of  provisions  were  to 
be  cut  off  from  the  French  side,  the  fort  could  hold  out 
for  an  indefinite  period  of  time.  It  was  natural  that  a 
stronghold  of  this  description  should  be  made  a  great 
fuss  about,  and  that  some  sort  of  festivity  should  take 
place  at  the  conclusion  of  the  works.  And  so  it  oc- 
curred. The  ceremony  of  the  consecration  of  the  fort, 
an<]  of  hoisting  the  flag  on  their  first  fortress,  was  quite 
an  event  among  the  Carlists  at  Urdax,  Zugarramurdy, 
and  the  environs.  High  mass  was  celebrated,  speeches 
were  delivered,  cannons  fired  all  day  long,  and  a  ban- 
quet given,  for  which  wine  a.nd  provisions  were  brought 
over  from  Bayonne  and  St.-Jean-de-Luz ;  and  so  freely 
did  the  officers  indulge  in  these  luxuries,  that  traces  of 
the  festivity  were  to  be  seen,  even  on  the  next  day,  in 
the  features  of  some  of  them. 

But  another  day  passed,  and  all  joy  had  vanished,  a 
heavy  gloom  being  now  visible  on  every  face.  Some 
bad  news  reached  Urdax  on  that  day.  In  the  first 
place,  several  thousand  English-made  cartridges  had 
somehow  been  seized  on  the  frontier,  and  in  the  second, 
the  Republican  Colonel  Tejada  had  fortified  San  Este- 
van,  and  showing  the  apparent  intention  of  marching 
on  Urdax,  had  already  reached  Elizondo,  with  fifteen 
hundred-  men  and  two  cannons,  and  could  easily  begin 
to  shell  our  miserable  loop-hole  in  two  or  three  hours. 
"  What  shall  we  do  ? "  was  a  question  that  might  be 
read  on  every  one's  face,  for  the  five  hundred  raw  re- 
cruits, who  were  to  protect  us  under  the  orders  of  the 
Marquis  de  Las  Hormazas,  nephew  of  General  Elio, 


164  SPAIN  AND    THE  SPANIARDS. 

had  in  all  only  three  hundred  cartridges.  Very  few 
questioned  the  bravery  of  the  marquis,  but  the  position 
was  too  critical  to  admit  of  any  solution  by  means  of 
mere  courage.  Right  down  flight  was  evidently  the 
only  means  of  escape  left.  "  I  have  no  fear  for  my 
men,"  said  the  marquis.  "  They  will  all  find  room 
within  the  walls  of  our  fortress ;  but  what  I  am  afraid 
of  Is  the  safety  of  the  brilliant  staff  we  have  with  us, 
and  of  their  beautiful  horses.  They  will  all  come  to 
grief  climbing  the  mountain,  or  break  down  for  want 
of  food  on  Peiia  de  Plata."  Count  d'Alcantara  drew 
a  very  long  face  when  flight  was  decided  upon,  and  he 
saw  his  brilliant  ofiicers  doomed  to  behold  the  ruin  of 
their  chargers,  to  obstruct  the  movements  of  volun- 
teers, and  to  increase  the  general  confusion. 

Kor  did  the  old  Marquis  of  Valdespina,  head  of 
General  Dorregaray's  staff,  look  much  brighter.  The 
marquis  led  the  cavalry  charge  at  Eraoul,  got  a  bayonet 
wound  in  the  arm,  and  had  since  been  Lad  up  at  a  little 
house  at  Zugarramurdy.  A  decree  of  the  king,  his 
master,  appointing  him  grand  marshal  and  grand  cross, 
seemed  to  have  quite  restored  the  health  of  the  old 
gentleman,  and  to  have  given  him  strength  enough  to 
join  in  the  ceremony  of  the  consecration  of  the  new 
fortress,  after  which  he  came  to  TJrdax,  where  he  was 
to  wait,  as  we  did.  He  had  consequently  to  fly,  too, 
with  us,  having  for  escort  only  his  two  son[$  and  his 
aide-de-camp.  In  that  way,  as  far  as  Carlist  notabilities 
were  concerned,  the  capture  of  the  Urdax  detachment 
would  have  been  quite  a  treat  to  the  Republican  col- 
umn. But  the  Republican  colonel,  not  being  suffi- 
ciently well  informed  about  the  position  we  were  in, 


ON  THE  SILVER  MOUNTAIN.  165 

did  not  Mtack  us,  when  he  could  have  caught  all  of  us, 
and  thus  gave  us  ample  time  for  flight.  At  daybreak 
on  the  6th  of  June,  off  wo  marched  to  Zugarramurdy, 
and  a  few  hours  later  were  safe  on  the  top  of  Pena  de 
Plata,  fully  a  thousand  feet  above  any  spot  that  the 
Republicans  could  be  expected  to  reach.  What  the 
road  was  like  I  am  utterly  unable  to  describe.  Kids, 
I  fancy,  would  be  the  only  animals  likely  to  find  it 
comfortable.  It  was  all  an  incoherent  mass  of  stones, 
big  and  small,  rolling  under  foot ;  and  where  it  was 
not  stone  it  was  slippery  mud.  The  path  was  nowhere 
wider  than  a  yard,  and  about  the  top  of  the  height 
ceased  to  be  a  patli  at  all.  Every  one  climbed  the 
rocks  as  best  he  could,  and  out  of  a  couple  of  dozen 
horses  of  the  staff  fifteen  were  lamed,  the  beautiful 
chargers  of  the  Paris  cavalry  being  of  course  the  first 
to  break  down.  Over  six  hours  did  the  march  last, 
and  when  we  reached  the  fort  we  had  only  one  pros- 
pect—  that  of  being  locked  up  in  it  without  rations 
until  some  other  and  better  provided  for  band  came  to 
our  rescue.  That  band  every  one  expected  to  be  that 
of  the  cure  Santa  Cruz,  who  was  within  a  couple  of 
hours'  march  at  Echalar,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
mountain.  As  a  matter  of  course,  neither  the  Marquis 
Valdespina,  nor  the  Marquis  de  Las  Hormazas,  com- 
manding the  cartridgeless  force,  intimated  what  their 
plans  or  expectations  were,  and  this  rendered  the 
position  still  less  pleasant. 

Towards  the  evening  only  did  we  learn  that  the  cure 
had  refused  all  help,  and  threatened  to  shoot  young 
Yaldespina  if  his  father  sent  him  down  again  to  Echalar 
with  either  commands  or  propositions.     Being  already 


166  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

under  sentence  of  death,  the  cure  imagined  that  our 
expedition  to  the  top  of  Pena  de  Plata  was  simply  a 
manoeuvre  invented  for  the  purpose  of  capturing  him 
and  his  force.  He  declared  his  resolution  not  to  go 
into  the  trap,  and  added  that  if  the  Urdax  detachment 
had  no  cartridges,  it  was  the  fault  of  Senor  Dorronsoro, 
late  Carlist  deputy  in  the  Cortes,  and  now  governor 
of  the  fort  Peiia  de  Plata,  who  had  the  management 
of  the  stores,  and  who  got,  it  seems,  an  endless  supply 
of  money  fiom  Don  Carlos'  cash-box.  To  that  gentle- 
man the  cure  sent  word  to  say  that,  both  for  his  spend- 
ing money  for  inauguration  banquets,  like  that  of  a 
couple  of  days  back,  and  for  his  threatening  to  fire  at 
Santa  Cruz  whenever  he  passed  within  the  range  of 
his  cannons,  he  would  administer  to  him  a  heavy  basti- 
nado as  soon  as  he  caught  him.  With  all  these  com- 
munications the  young  Marquis  of  Valdespina  returned 
to  us,  and  for  a  couple  of  hours  a  regular  war-council 
was  held  on  the  top  of  the  height,  Vv'ith  a  view  to 
decide  what  was  to  be  done,  when,  all  at  once,  a  spy 
arrived  with  information  that  the  enemy,  instead  of 
advancing  on  Urdax,  had  retreated  to  San  Estevan. 
We  could,  consequently,  come  down  again  from  our 
eagle's  nest  and  get  something  to  eat.  Great  was  the 
general  joy.  Marchar  I  was  to  be  heard  on  all  sides, 
and  we  had  time,  before  it  became  quite  dark,  to  reach 
Zugarramurdy  again,  where  wine,  bread,  and  forage 
could  be  found  without  particular  difiiculty  for  the 
whole  of  the  force. 

The  cause  of  this  Republican  retreat  from  Elizondo, 
when  by  marching  on  Urdax  their  success  was  so  cer- 
tain, was  the  very  famous  cure  who  refused  to  help  us. 


ON  THE  SILVER  MOUNTAIN.  167 

Early  in  the  morning  on  the  previous  day  he  attacked 
a  fortified  post  of  some  forty  carbineros  near  the  bridge 
of  Enderlaza,  on  the  high  road  from  Irun  to  Vera. 
The  little  cannon  he  had  soon  smashed  the  palisades, 
calculated  to  protect  the  Republicans  only  from  rifle- 
shots, and  the  carbineros,  after  having  lost  several  men, 
hoisted  a  white  flag.  The  Carlists  began  then  to 
descend  from  tlie  heights  down  into  the  valley,  and 
when  they  were  close  to  the  bridge  a  volley  of  musket- 
ry greeted  them. 

Santa  Cruz's  band  became  quite  furious ;  they  threw 
themselves  forw^ard  to  a  man,  and  slaughtered  every 
one  of  the  carbineros  they  could  lay  their  hands  on. 
The  Republicans  said  afterwards  that  the  cure  executed 
prisoners  w^ho  had  hoisted  a  white  flag,  while  the  cure 
said  he  simply  killed  treacherous  enemies  who  had 
tried  to  get  him  into  an  ambush.  Whatever  side  may 
have  been  right,  for  us  the  wholesale  butchery  of  these 
carbineros  had  a  very  favorable  result.  The  news 
of  the  Enderlaza  bridge  affjiir  spread  with  an  electric 
rapidity,  and  compelled  Colonel  Tejada  to  retreat  from 
Elizondo.  We  were  thus  saved  from  partial  starvation, 
and  perhaps  from  capture,  and  the  five  hundred,  men 
of  the  Marquis  Las  Hormazas  had  now  a  fair  chance  to 
get  cartridges  in  a  day  or  two,  and  to  be  able  to  defend 
both  themselves  and  the  distinguished  and  brilliant 
Paris  cavalry  they  protected. 


But  in  a  place  like  Urdax,  even  with  plenty  of 
cartridges  and  a  good  deal  of  fashionable  society,  life 
does  still  not  appear  couleur  de  rose.     The  everlasting 


168  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

mutton,  stale  bread,  and  pig's  skin  smelling  wine,  began 
to  disgust  the  elegant  Paris  cavalry.  Of  work  there 
was  nothing  to  be  anticipated  beyond  that  which  we 
Lad  seen  during  our  flight  to  Peiia  de  Plata.  To 
undertake  excursions  to  Bayonne,  or  St.-Jean-de-Luz, 
became  impossible,  for  the  names  of  the  gentlemen 
composing  the  squadron  were  quickly  made  known  to 
the  authorities  on  the  French  frontier,  and  au  order  had 
been  issued  to  arrest  them  as  soon  as  they  appeared  on 
French  soil.  The  only  recreation  to  them  was,  there- 
fore, to  take,  now  and  then,  a  ride  along  such  bits  of 
the  Pamplona  high  road  as  were  free  from  Republican 
posts,  or  down  to  the  biidge  of  Doncharinea,  half  of 
which  is  Spanish,  the  other  half  French.  Every  after- 
noon members  of  this  elegant  corps  could  be  seen 
talking  to  the  French  gendarmes  on  the  bridge,  joking 
at  their  being  not  able  to  arrest  them,  although  they 
were  quite  close  enough,  and  passing  letters  which  the 
gendarmes  and  custom-house  officers  posted  to  the 
friends  of  those  very  men  whom  they  had  the  order  to 
capture. 

A  life  of  that  sort  could,  of  course,  present  no  attrac- 
tion to  men,  some  of  whom  had  left  Paris  because,  as 
they  said,  it  turned  dull  to  them,  and  they  wanted 
amusement  and  good  living  before  everything.  From 
what  I  learned  subsequently,  I  think  that  to  many  of 
them  legitimacy  was  quite  a  secondary,  if  any,  con- 
sideration. But,  be  that  as  it  may,  here  they  were,  and 
could  not,  apparently,  make  up  their  minds  to  wait  till 
Don  Carlos  came  over,  and  the  movements  of  the  roy- 
alist forces  had  taken  a  more  decisive  turn.  Yet,  as 
Dorregaray   and    Elio   were   operating    much   farther 


ON   THE  SILVER  MOUNTAIN.  169 

down  in  the  country,  and  as  I  did  not  see  the  fun  of 
sharing  the  Paris  cavalry's  idle  and  tiresome  captivity 
in  a  miserable  village,  I  resolved,  if  possible,  to  make  a 
move,  exj)laining  to  the  amiable  Count  d' Alcantara  and 
his  followers  that  though,  as  military  men,  they  were 
subjected  to  the  Marquis  of  Valdespina,  as'senior  officer 
in  the  place,  and  .to  the  Marquis  Las  Hormazas,  as 
commander  of  the  Urdax  force,  they  were  not  officially 
placed  under  the  orders  of  either,  and  had,  if  they 
chose,  the  right  to  go  to  Elio's  headquarters,  which 
were  then  in  Las  Amescoas.  I  pointed  out  also  that 
a  little  excursion  in  that  direction  would  probably  pre- 
sent the  attraction  of  novelty,  and,  to  say  the  least,  of 
a  very  pleasant  military  picnic.  The  Count  d'Alcan- 
tara  seemed  at  first  to  have  some  objections  to  my  plan, 
knowing,  as  he  did,  that  the  old  Marquis  of  Valdespina 
was  anxious  to  keep  around  himself  the  fashionable 
escort ;  but,  the  officers  of  the  squadron  having  sided 
with  me,  he  resolved  to  announce  to  the  marquis  our 
intention  of  leaving  Urdax.  Yet  as,  in  a  little  village 
like  that,  everything  is  speedily  known,  old  Valdespina 
learned  of  our  plan,  and  of  my  having  proposed  it,  long 
before  Count  d'Alcantara  had  made  up  his  mind  to 
submit  the  question  to  him. 

"  Go  and  fetch  me  that  journalist  with  the  curtain 
on  his  hat,"  cried  out  the  infuriated  old  man  to  his  aide- 
de-camp,  meaning  me  and  the  puggaree  I  wore.  In  a 
very  few  minutes  I  was  caught  and  brought  into  the 
presence  of  the  gallant  and  excitable  marquis,  and  a 
really  thunder-like  scolding  fell  upon  my,  poor  head. 
I  was  rendering  him  ridiculous ;  I  was  taking  away  his 
troops ;  I  was  showing  an  example  of  insubordination, 


170  SPAIN  AND    THE  SPANIARDS. 

and  I  don't  know  what  else.  I  had  the  greatest  diffi- 
culty in  making  the  brave  but  perfectly  deaf  marquis 
understand,  through  the  aid  of  his  gutta  percha  tube, 
that  if  any  one  rendered  him  ridiculous,  it  wns  himself, 
in  making  all  that  noise  about  a  foreign  journalist 
having  wished  to  go  on  a  trip  to  the  headquarters,  and 
having  asked  a  few  foreign  officers,  who  had  absolutely 
nothing  to  do,  whether  they  would  not  join  him,  —  that 
I  never  meant  to  take  away  any  of  his  troops  at  all, 
and  that,  if  he  was  discontented  either  with  my  pres- 
ence or  with  my  conduct,  the  only  thing  he  had  to  do  was 
to  order  me  to  be  escorted  to  the  frontier.  I  added,  at 
the  same  time,  that,  as  I  had  nothing  to  do  at  Urdax, 
and  was  now  not  permitted  to  go  forward,  I  had  noth- 
ing left  to  me  but  to  go  back  to  France,  and  wait  until 
Don  Carlos,  who  liad  invited  me  to  follow  the  opera- 
tions of  his  army,  should  come  across  himself. 

About  a  fortnight  later,  when  I  again  met  the  good 
old  man,  he  had  of  course  forgotten  all  about  our  com- 
ical squabble,  and  treated  me  quite  as  an  old  friend  ; 
but  at  the  moment  of  the  first  explosion  of  his  Castilian 
fury,  he  seemed  so  angry,  that  I  considered  my  retire- 
ment from  under  his  jurisdiction  as  the  only  course 
left.  But  where  shall  I  go  now?  was  my  next 
thought.  I  must  find  something  to  write  upon,  as 
they  won't  stand  in  New  York  any  falling  ofl:"  of  com- 
munication from  a  quarter  where  blood  is  supposed  to 
be  daily  poured  out  in  streams.  Yet,  in  reality,  weeks 
and  weeks  passed  without  a  single  drop  of  human 
blood  being  shed,  except  in  the  barber's  shops  of  the 
Peninsula.  *  There  were,  indeed,  some  rows  going  on 
in  a  few  towns  on  the  southern  and   eastern   coasts. 


ON  THE   SILVER  MOUNTAIN.  171 

But  by  going  so  far  away  I  was  pretty  sure  to  miss  the 
entry  of  the  Pretender,  and  the  beginning  of  what  was 
spoken  of  as  the  "Great  Campaign."  On  a  ride  of 
nearly  six  hours  from  Urdax  to  Bayonne,  I  was  the 
whole  time  turning  the  matter  over  in  my  mind,  till  all 
at  once  the  genius  of  "  enterprise"  whispered  to  me, 
"  And  how  about  Santa  Cruz  ?  "  Every  one  then  spoke 
of  the  man  as  about  the  worst  brigand  and  assassin 
that  ever  existed.  Every  newspaper  had  daily  some 
new  exploit  of  his  to  relate.  Yet,  even  among  the  Car- 
lists,  few  knew  him  personally,  or  had  ever  seen  him. 
To  find  out  a  man  of  this  description,  and  to  "inter- 
view "  him,  appeared  to  me  as  the  very  thing  to  be 
done  to  please  the  Herald;  and,  without  any  further 
delay,  off  was  I  to  St.-Jean-de-Luz,  and  thence  to  Vera, 
the  famous  cure's  head-quarters. 


172  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 


CHAPTER  X. 


SANTA   CRUZ. 


AS  often  happens  in  cases  of  an  unpleasant  nature, 
the  man  wanted  was  not  to  be  found.  He 
was  neither  at  Yera,  nor  at  Echalar,  where  I  was 
told  at  St.-Jean-de-Luz  I  was  sure  to  find  him.  He 
had  already  marched  off  towards  Heriiani  with  some 
six  hundred  of  his  crack  men  and  two  cannons.  I 
had  consequently  to  present  myself  to  a  rough-looking 
chap  of  barely  twenty  years,  aimed  to  the  teeth,  and 
bearing  the  sonorous  name  of  Don  Estevan  Indart, 
and  the  important  rank  of  the  commander  of  the 
place  and  forces  of  Vera.  He  was  a^sleep  when,  after 
having  been  taken  by  the  patrols  at  the  outskirt  of 
the  town,  I  was  brought  into  his  room.  Lying  across 
the  bed,  with  a  whole  arsenal  of  arms  upon  him,  his 
head  hanging  down  and  his  legs  up  on  the  wall,  he 
was  snoring  most  formidably.  But  after  a  few  calls, 
accompanied  by  some  pokes  from  the  sergeant,  the 
worthy  warrior  woke  up  and  began  to  examine  my 
]>npers  without  changing  in  the  least  his  picturesque 
t'psy-turvy  attitude.  From  the  tone  of  his  voice,  if 
nut  from  the  words  he  uttered,  I  perceived  at  once 
that  he  swore  at  the  documents,  being  just  as  unable 
to  understand  them   as   his  .patrols  were.     Not   only 


SANTA    CRUZ.  173 

were  the  foreign  documents  unintelligible  to  him,  but 
even  the  Carlist  passport,  by  which  the  ministers  of 
Don  Carlos  granted  me  free  circulation  amid  the 
armies  of  "  S.  M.  El  Rey,  Nuestro  Seilor,"  and  which 
was  worded  in  Spanish,  was  a  dead  letter  to  Don 
Estevan  Indart.  Being  a  pure  Basque  of  Guipuzcoa, 
as  well  as  the  majority  of  his  soldiers,  he  did  not  know 
Spanish,  and  did  not  seem  to  care  for  it.  Without 
even  looking  at  me,  or  attempting  to  arrive  at  any 
sort  of  understanding,  he  gave  some  orders  to  the 
sergeant,  and  I  was  marched  out  of  the  room.  A 
crowd  of  armed  men  and  of  ragged  children  had 
already  assembled  about  my  horse. 

To  all  my  inquiries  whether  I  could  see  Seiior  Santa 
Cruz,  I  had  only  the  short  and  abrupt  answer  of 
"  Salida "  (apparently  the  only  Spanish  word  these 
men  knew,  and  which  meant  that  the  cure  had  gone). 
And  here  I  stood  without  knowing  what  was  to  be- 
come of  me,  when  presently  the  patrol  sergeant  ap- 
peared with  a  cleanly-dressed  young  girl,  who,  after 
addressing  to  me  a  few  questions  in  intelligible  French 
and  excellent  Spanish,  went  up  to  the  commander's 
room  with  my  papers.  Within  a  few  minutes  she  was 
back  again,  and  said  that  Don  Estevan  had  ordered 
her  to  take  me  to  her  house,  where  I  should  liave 
to  wait  till  the  return  of  Senor  Santa  Cruz.  To  my 
inquiry  whether  I  should  have  to  wait  long,  she  said 
no  one  knew,  or  was  able  to  tell  me  anything ;  while 
to  the  question  whether  I  could  proceed  farther 
should  the  cure  not  return  soon,  I  got  the  short  but 
explicit  answer  of  "  No."  In  this  way  I  found  my- 
self practically  the  piisoner  of  Don  Estevan  Indart 
and  of  my  little  interpreter. 


174  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

Happily  enough,  my  hostess  was,  or  rather  my  host- 
esses were  quite  charming  persons.  Their  father,  the 
only  and  consequently  the  leading  tailor  of  the  town, 
seemed  to  have  saved  money  enough  to  send  his  two 
girls  to  Bayonne  to  study  millinery.  Together  with 
this  trade,  the  girls  had  learned  there  French  and 
Spanish,  and  had  now  nothing  of  the  peculiar  Basque 
look  about  them.  They  did  not  wear  even  the 
usual  Basquese  costume,  and  considered  themselves, 
and  were  considered  by  everybody,  as  very  distin- 
guished "ladies."  The  eldest  girl  was  humpbacked, 
and  consequently  less  admired ;  bul  the  second  was 
evidently  a  general  attraction  to  the  town. 

Santa  Cruz,  known  to  be  full  of  hate  to  the  fair 
sex,  and  of  never  having  kept  a  female  servant,  or 
even  allowed  his  sister  to  live  at  his  house,  seemed 
to  have  made  an  exception  in  favor  of  the  young  Vera 
millmers,  being  in  frequent  intercourse  with  them,  and 
having  appointed  them  to  superintend  the  manufac- 
ture of  clothing  for  his  soldiers.  There  had  been 
for  the  last  two  years  no  millinery  work  of  any  kind 
to  be  done  at  Vera,  and  so  the  girls  were  quite  glad 
to  become  military  tailors,  and  seemed  to  discharge 
their  duties  to  the  full  satisfaction  of  the  ferocious  Cura. 
And  while  the  two  American  sewing-machines  were 
going  their  full  speed,  the  girls  talked  to  me  all  day 
long,  and  told  me  about  the  inner  life  of  their  little 
and  unlucky  town,  more  than  I  could  ever  have 
learned  by  personal  observation  during  the  foity-eight 
hours  I  was  their  captive. 

The  town  of  Vera  was,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
thoroughly  Carlist.     The  Republicans  had  taken  pos- 


SANTA    CRUZ.  175 

session  of  it  five  times  since  the  Carlist  war  broke 
out,  and  the  utterly  ruined  population  spoke  of  these 
Republican  occupations  as  the  worst  moments  they 
had  endured.  Besides  the  usual  contributions,  the 
town  had  additional  burdens  to  bear  for  being  a 
Carlist  centre.  When  I  visited  Vera,  no  man  was 
to  be  seen  in  it  except  those  armed,  the  civil  portion 
of  the  population  apparently  consisting  of  women  and 
children  only.  Half  of  the  houses  were  deserted  or 
shut  up,  and,  except  in  the  evening,  scarcely  any 
one  was  to  be  seen  in  the  street,  the  women  being 
anxious  to  accomplish  such  little  field-work  as  they 
possibly  could.  They  toiled  hard  all  day  long,  and 
the  Carlists  eagerly  assisted  them,  whenever  they  got 
a  day's  rest  from  perpetual  marching.  The  soldiers 
of  Don  Estevan  Indart,  who  were  in  possession  of  the 
place  when  I  reached  it,  were  to  the  last  man  at  work 
in  the  fields,  except  the  men  on  duty.  The  misery 
and  wretchedness  of  the  place  were  nevertheless  quite 
shocking.  Of  cows,  oxen,  horses,  or  pigs,  there  was 
no  longer  any  trace.  A  few  sheep,  a  few  fowls,  and  a 
couple  of  donkeys,  seemed  to  be  all  the  inhabitants 
of  Vera  still  possessed  in  the  way  of  live-stock.  Their 
own  number  had  also  decreased  to  barely  two  thou- 
sand, and  this  small  community,  consisting  almost  ex- 
clusively of  women  and  children,  had  to  pay  every 
month  over  twenty  thousand  francs  in  rations  of  bread, 
wine,  and  meat  only,  without  reckoning  either  lodgings, 
or  such  extras  as  are  always  likely  to  be  required,  es- 
pecially when  the  Republicans  came  in  and  retaliated 
upon  Vera  for  its  well-known  Carlist  proclivities.  My 
two  hostesses  and  their  father  had  had  over  thirty  francs 


176  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

a  month  to  pay  for  nearly  two  years  past,  and  they 
said  they  could  not  make  out  where  families  with 
less  resources  got  the  money  required.  Seeing  that 
the  flocks  of  the  place  were  quite  exhausted,  Santa 
Cruz  invented  a  rather  ingenious  mode  of  supplying 
the  wants  of  his  bunds.  lie  requisitioned  sheep  and 
oxen  in  other  places,  or  on  the  high  road,  or  captured 
them  from  the  Republicans,  and  sold  them  to  the 
municipality  of  Vera  for  ready  cash,  which  he  in- 
vested in  arms  and  ammunition,  while  the  town,  hav- 
ing bought  from  him  tlie  beasts,  delivered  them  back 
again  in  the  form  of  rations.  lSotwit*listanding  all  this 
misery,  however,  the  inhabitants  seem  to  be  on  the  best 
possible  terms  with  the  Cailists.  They  were  evidently 
tired  of  the  war,  but  not  a  word  of  reproach  was 
to  be  heard  against  the  Carlists  or  their  chiefs,  and 
Santa  Cruz  himself  was  almost  an  object  of  worship 
among  the  population.  Now  and  then  only  they 
would  whisper  that  he  was  too  severe;  but  this  was 
meant  with  reference  to  his  own  men  only,  and  not 
to  what  he  was  doing  in  the  field.  And  it  must  be 
said  that  the  discipline  of  Santa  Cruz's  bands  was 
kept  up  with  a  stern  hand.  Within  the  week  he 
spent  at  Vera,  previous  to  the  Enderlaza  fight,  he 
shot  two  of  his  men  for  attempting  to  rob  some 
travellers  who  turned  out  to  be  Carhsts,  and  gave 
the  bastinado  to  three  more  who  failed  in  the  perform- 
ance of  their  duties.  What  terrified  his  men  above 
all  was,  that  he  never  spoke  of  what  he  intended  doing 
or  uttered  any  reproach.  He  was  really  a  man  of  few 
words,  and  one  of  the  best  characteristics  of  his  nature 
is  exemplified  by  the  manner  in  which  he  treated  one 


SANTA    CRUZ.  Vl'J 

of  his  former  friends  —  an  old  man,  sixty-five  years 
of  age,  of  the  name  of  Amilibia. 

Two  brothers  Amilibia,  and  a  man  of  the  name  of 
Recondo,  were  commanding  some  Carlist  troops  in 
May,  1872,  when  Don  Carlos  was  surprised  at  Oro- 
quieta  by  Moiiones,  and  Serrano  was  thus  enabled 
to  compel  some  of  the  Carlist  chiefs  to  capitulate. 
Santa  Cruz  was  then  chaplain  of  Recondo's  battalion, 
which  operated  in  conjunction  with  that  of  the  broth- 
ers Amilibia,  and  seemed  to  have  urged  these  officers 
not  to  lay  down  arms  or  sign  a  convention.  They 
did  not  listen,  however,  to  his  advice,  and  Santa  Cruz 
has  felt  since  that  time  an  invincible  hatred  to  these 
men,  and  has  never  called  them  otherwise  than  traitors. 
During  the  present  year,  when  the  Carlist  war  had 
been  resumed,  and  Santa  Cruz  was  no  more  a  chap- 
lain, but  a  cabecilla^  he  arrived  one  morning  at  Echa- 
lar,  where  one  of  the  brothers  Amilibia  had  also 
arrived  on  his  way  towards  the  headquarters,  intend- 
ing to  resume  service. 

"  What  are  you  doing  here,  traitor ! "  exclaimed 
Santa  Cruz,  on  seeing  Amilibia  looking  out  of  the 
inn  window  as  he  was  passing  by  with  his  troops. 
"  You  had  better  leave  Spain  at  once  if  you  care  for 
your  life." 

But  as  Santa  Cruz's  band  remained  for  dinner  in  the 
village,  Amilibia,  probably  anxious  to  whitewash  him- 
self in  their  eyes,  asked  some  of  the  volunteers  he 
knew  to  the  inn,  gave  them  some  wine,  and  began  to 
talk  over  the  previous  year's  business.  It  would  seem 
that  liis  language,  with  reference  to  Santa  Cruz,  was  not 
particularly  respectful,  and  that  he  made  some  allusions 
12 


178  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS, 

to  his  being  a  despot  and  a  rebel,  not  obeying  either 
his  superiors,  or  even  his  lord  the  king.  The  con- 
versation was  soon  reported  to  Santa  Ciuz.  and  Senor 
Amilibia  had  not  finished  his  hostile  remarks  when 
several  armed  men  appeared,  ordering  him,  as  well 
as  his  guests,  to  follow  them.  All  were  marched  to 
Santa  Cruz's  house,  in  front  of  which  a  company  of 
his  crack  men  w\as  ranged,  and  a  heap  of  hastones 
prepared.  • 

"  I  gave  you  an  advice  which  you  did  not  consider 
it  worth  listening  to,"  said  Santa  Crnz  to  his  old  friend. 
"You  even  considered  yourself  justified  in  trying  to 
excite  my  men  agfwnst  me.  I  will  therefore  give  you 
a  lesson  in  another  way  now;  and  the  first  time  I 
meet  you  or  your  brother,  or  Recondo,  again  on  Span- 
ish soil,  I'll  shoot  you  like  dogs." 

After  this  short  preface,  the  very  same  men  whom 
Amilibia  had  been  treating  were  ordered  to  take  the 
prepared  sticks  and  to  give  a  bastinado  to  the  old 
man.  Santa  Cruz  himself  reckoned  the  strokes,  and 
cried  out  his  "  Bastante  "  after  the  fortieth  had  been 
inflicted.  A  few  days  later,  when  I  had  to  pass 
through  Echalar,  I  alighted  at  the  same  inn,  saw  an 
old  man  lying,  as  I  thought,  hopelessly  ill,  but  no  one 
told  me  the  sad  narrative  of  his  illness.  It  was  only 
at  Vera  that  I  learned  his  story,  when  1  saw  the  poor 
man  carried  on  a  stretcher  towards  the  French  fron- 
tiei-,  on  the  other  side  of  which  he  hoped  to  find  the 
necessary  care  and  medical  assistance.  Santa  Cruz  left 
Echalar  the  same  afternoon,  and,  from  the  whispering 
tone  in  which  the  afiair  was  spoken  of,  I  must  conclude 
that  its  effect  was  all  the  wild  cure  could  have  desired. 


SANTA    CRUZ.  179 

No  one,  either  at  Echalar  or  at  Vera,  has  ever  since 
attempted  to  betray  the  Carlist  cause,  or  speak  against 
the  brutal  authority  of  the  cure. 

Another  fact  characteristic  of  the  nature  of  this  man 
is  his  deaUng  with  the  only  piisoner  he  had  taken  at 
Enderlaza.  The  whole  number  of  carahineros  which 
took  part  in  that  affair  amounted  to  forty-one  men. 
Five  of  them  got  off  in  safety,  two  were  drowned  in 
attempting  to  escape  by  swimming  across  the  Bidas- 
soa,  nine  were  killed  during  the  action,  twenty-three 
were  massacred  because  they  Iiad  fired  after  they  had 
hoisted  the  white  flag,  and  one  was,  somehow  or  other, 
taken  piisoner.  Santa  Cruz  carried  that  man  for  sev- 
eral days  with  him,  but  when  he  learned  that,  notwith- 
standing the  letters  he  had  sent  to  the  Bayonne  pa])ors 
giving  the  particulars  of  the  affair,  public  opinion  in 
Spain  and  France  still  persisted  in  accusing  him  of 
having  shot  prisoners,  he  sent  word  to  his  captive, 
saying  he  thought  it  his  duty  to  justify  the  accusa- 
tions of  the  Liberals,  nnd  therefore  to  shoot  him. 
Ten  minutes  were  allowed  the  poor  man  for  confes- 
sion, and  four  balls  put  an  end  to  his  life. 

It  may  be  mentioned  here,  by  the  by,  that  this  eco- 
nomical plan  of  shooting  with  four  balls,  instead  of  the 
customary  twelve,  is  an  established  rule  in  the  Carlist 
army.  They  say  they  cannot  afford  the  luxury  of 
twelve  cartridges  for  one  man.  'And  the  fact  that 
the  twenty-three  carahineros  who  were  found  lying 
in  one  heap  near  the  Enderlaza  bridge  were  all  shot 
with  one  ball,  not  with  four,  and  mostly  through  the 
head,  was  adduced  by  Santa  Cruz  and  his  men  as  ad- 
ditional  proof  that   they  were   not   shot   after   being 


180  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

taken  prisoners,  but  killed  in  a  hand-to-hand  fight  by 
the  Carlists,  enraged  by  the  treachery  to  which  they 
had  been  exposed.  Yet  it  must  be  said  that,  however 
savage  the  fighting  may  have  been,  it  could  not  have 
lasted  long ;  for  of  the  two  dead  bodies  I  saw  picked 
out  of  the  Bidassoa,  the  one  had  twenty-two  cartridges 
in  his  pouch,  the  other  fifty.  Keeping  in  view  that  a 
cartridge-pouch  contains  sixty  cartridges,  and  that  it  is 
seldom  quite  full,  it  become§  evident  that  the  two  men 
who* threw  themselves  into  the  Bidassoa  had  scarcely 
fought  more  than  a  fiew  minutes. 

There  is  no  need  to  say  that  the  famous  cure  is  a 
man  of  a  quite  peculiar  type.  His  organizing  faculties 
seemed  to  be  just  as  considerable  as  his  despotism  was 
violent.  He  has  never  received  a  penny  or  a  cartridge 
from  the  ministers  of  Don  Carlos.  Notwithstanding 
that,  he  armed  and  equipped  nearly  a  thousand  men, 
established  a  cartridge  manufactory,  and  was  about  to 
open  in  a  secure  spot  of  the  mountains,  c.dled  "  The 
Three  Crowns,"  a  regular  gun  and  cannon  manufactory 
when  he  had  to  fly  to  France.  He  had  also  managed 
to  make  a  few  hundred  rifles  with  the  means  he  found 
at  Vera,  Echalar,  and  Arachulegui.  One  became  per- 
fectly puzzled  when  one  saw  all  that  man  had  done 
almost  without  any  means  whatever,  and  certainly 
without  anything  like  scientific  notions  as  to  how  such 
things  should  be  done. 

The  drill  of  Santa  Cruz's  band  was  just  as  peculiar 
as  all  the  rest  of  his  arrangements.  There  was  some- 
thing quite  strange  and  perfectly  original  in  the  kind 
of  dancing  movements  of  his  men  ;  but  they  marched 
remarkably  well,  with   marvellous  speed,  and  for  an 


SANTA    CRUZ.  181 

unusual  number  of  miles  in  a  single  jonrney.  All  the 
men  wearing  soft  Basque  sandals,  one  scarcely  heard 
when  they  passed,  and,  for  a  considerable  period  of 
time,  both  Santa  Cruz  and  his  officers  went  always  on 
foot  with  the  men.  It  was  only  when  his  force  was 
provided  in  every  other  respect  that  he  took  to  riding, 
and  gave  a  horse  to  every  commander  of  a  company. 

Still  more  primitive,  perhaps,  was  the  care  Santa 
Cruz  took  of  the  bodily  cleanliness  of  his  men.  When- 
ever he  got  to  a  stream  with  a  sufficient  quantity  of 
water  in  it  (which  is  not  often  the  case  in  Spain),  he 
ordered  all  his  men  to  take  a  bath ;  and  regularly  twice 
a  week  they  had  all  to  change  their  shirts.  As  they. 
were  not  allowed  to  carry  any  luggage,  and  hardly  had 
any  shirt  beyond  that  which  they  wore,  the  cure  in- 
vented the  simple  mode  of  requisitioning  clean  shirts 
against  the  dirty  ones,  which  he  left  to  the  inhabitants 
of  such  villages  as  he  had  to  pass.  As  the  practice  had 
been  continued  for  several  months,  quite  a  regular  stock 
of  this  kind  of  garment  was  ready  in  every  village  of 
the  province  of  Guipuzcoa,  which  was  his  great  centre 
of  operations.  The  men  arrived,  received  the  clean 
shirts  from  the  alcalde  of  the  village,  returned  him  the 
dirty  ones,  and  the  next  day  all  the  village  women 
were  engaged  in  washing  for  the  next  arrival  of  the 
band.  Santa  Cruz  seemed  to  be  quite  proud  of  this 
arrangement.'  At  all  events,  I  saw  a  letter  written  by 
him  to  his  friend  and  ammunition  agent  in  France,  in 
which  he  boasted  of  having  brought  his  men  to  such  a 
state  of  cleanliness  that  he  was  prepared  to  pay  a  real 
(five  cents)  for  every  louse  that  would  be  found  on  any 
of  them. 


182  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

But  if  the  cure  thus  showed  great  ability  and  energy 
in  organizing  his  own  force,  he  was  far  from  showing 
the  same  care  about  the  general  progress  of  Carhst 
affairs.  I  have  mentioned  already  what  was  his  an- 
swer to  a  demand  for  assistance  sent  to  him  from  Fort 
Peiia  de  Plata.  The  conditions  which  he  put  to  his 
"  lord  and  king's  "  request  to  submit  to  the  military 
authorities  was  not  much  better.  He  said  he  would 
do  so  when  his  sentence  of  death  was  revoked,  his 
enemy  and  immediate  superior,  General  Lizarraga,  re- 
moved, and  full  liberty  left  to  him  to  operate  with  the 
bands  he  had  organized.  None  of  these  conditions 
having  been  fulfilled,  Santa  Cruz  did  not  yield  an 
iota.  Don  Carlos,  enraged  at  such  conduct  on  the 
part  of  an  obscure  cura^  wrote  to  him,  through  his 
secretary,  ordering  Santa  Cruz  to  come  at  once  to 
France,  to  which  Santa  Cruz  answered  in  most  re- 
spectful terms  that  he  would  not  do  so.  If  the  king 
chose  to  come  himself  to  the  frontier,  or  to  send  any 
one,  Santa  Cruz  said  he  would  find  a  secure  spot  where 
he  would  give  verbally  every  explanation  that  might  be 
wanted  ;  but  he  thought  it  most  injurious  to  the  king's 
cause  that  he  should  leave  his  command;  for  he  was 
sure  he  should  never  be  able  to  return  to  his  post,  the 
French  gendarmes  knowing  him  now  too  well  from  the 
portraits  published  everywhere,  and  being  most  likely 
to  arrest  him  as  soon  as  he  had  put  his  loot  on  French 
soil. 


When  I  had  spent  fully  two  days  in  the  custody  of 
the  two  young  milliners  and  the  old  tailor,  and  was 


SANTA    CRUZ.  183 

just  beginning  to  speculate  how  long  my  detention 
at  Vera  might  last,  my  little  humpbacked  custodian 
rushed  into  my  room,  and  announced  that  Seiior  Santa 
Cruz  was  coming,  hurriedly  lisping,  "Here,  here,"  and 
pushing  me  into  the  front  room,  which  served  the  fam- 
ily as  a  worksliop.  Within  a  few  yards  of  the  house 
I  saw,  through  the  window,  the  ferocious  cur  a  march- 
ing in  with  a  band  of  his  best  men.  His  orderly  was 
walking  by  his  side,  leading  his  mountain  hack.  Santa 
Cruz  had  no  arms  about  him  except  a  revolver  stuck  in 
his  faja^  and  a  long  stick,  similar  to  those  used  in  the 
Alps  by  foreign  tourists  of  climbing  dispositions.  He 
was  dressed  in  a  rough  grayish  jacket  with  green 
pipings,  something  like  the  Bavarian  Jiiger  coat,  and 
rather  short  light  cotton  trousers  of  .the  same  color  as 
the  jacket;  a  pair  of  hempen  sandals  and  a  dark-blue 
beret  completed  the  costume.  There  was  not  a  brass 
button  or  anything  military-like  about  him;  but  noth- 
ing either  denoted  the  priest.  He  marched  with  long 
steps,  now  and  then  muttering  the  usual  ^^adios"  to 
people  bowing  to  him,  and  went  straight  to  his  house, 
some  twenty  doors  higher  than  that  I  was  lodged  in. 
My  hostesses  advised  me  not  to  go  to  him  until  called, 
as  Don  Estevan  was  sure  to  report  to  him  my  presence 
in  the  place.  More  than  an  hour  passed  without  my 
hearing  any  news  from  the  man  in  whose  power  I  was. 
Presently  I  noticed,  however,  some  movement  round 
his  residence,  and  by  and  by  the  cabecilla  appeared  at 
his  door.  He  walked  down  the  street  with  eight  men 
of  his  body-guard,  armed  a  la  Don  Estevan  to  their 
very  teeth. 

"Is  it  to  me  that  he  is  coming?     Is  it  to  shoot  me 


1^4  SPATJSr  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

that  those  men  are  with  him?  Thank  Heaven  they  do 
not  seem  to  have  any  sticks,  so  that  there  is  at  all 
events  little  probability  of  my  getting  a  bastinado." 
These  and  similar  thoughts  crossed  my  mind  with  the 
rapidity  of  lightning.  But  the  master  of  my  destiny 
passed  our  door,  and  turned  round  the  corner. 

"There  must  be  something  going  on  in  the  town 
square,"  said  the  old  tailor;  and  all  four  of  us,  as  by 
common  accord,  went  down  stairs  with  the  intention 
of  following  Santa  Cniz,  but  a  sentry  posted  at  the 
corner  stopped  us,  saying  that  we  had  better  wait  a  bit 
if  we  had  any  business  that  way.  Soon  some  vague 
noise  reached  our  ears,  and  by  and  by  very  distinct 
cries  of  a  suftering  man. . 

"  Some  one  is  being  punished  again,"  whispered  my 
humpbacked  friend,  and  made  a  sign  to  all  of  us  to 
return  home.  A  few  moments  later,  we  learned  that 
the  gunsmith  of  the  band,  to  whom  Santa  Cruz  had 
given  some  work  to  do,  had  not  fulfilled  his  task,  went 
away  during  the  cure's  absence  for  a  couple  of  days  to  a 
neighboring  village,  and  got  drunk.  His  reward  was 
fifty  hastones^  and  very  hard  must  they  have  been  ;  for, 
passing  by  his  house  more  than  twenty-four  hours  after 
the  punishment  was  inflicted,  I  heard  the  poor  man  still 
groaning.  It  did  not  take,  however,  much  time  for 
Santa  Cruz  to  give  this  new  "lesson."  In  less  than  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  he  was  walking  back  again  from  the 
town  square  with  the  same  body-guards,  and  as  he 
reached  our  house,  I  saw  Don  Estevan  receiving  some 
order,  and  rushing  up  om-  staircase.  There  was  no 
longer  any  mistake  that  my  turn  had  come  to  be  at- 
tended to.     "  Come  along  "  would  be  the  literal  trans- 


SANTA    CRUZ.  185 

lation  of  the  short  but  expressive  speech  Don  Estevan 
delivered  to  rae  on  entering  the  room.  Down  we  went 
at  once,  and  found  the  cure  waiting  with  his  staff  at  the 
door,  and  talking  to  a  short  and  stoutish  man  in  the 
costume  of  a  private.  I  learned  subsequently  that  the 
man  was  Don  Cruz  Ochoa,  late  Carlist  deputy  in  the 
Cortes,  and  now  a  private  soldier  in  Santa  Cruz's 
bands,  and  a  secretary  to  his  leader.  Don  Cruz  Ochoa 
is  a  well-educated  man,  speaking  very  fair  French,  of 
which  he  was  anxious  to  make  a  show  each  time  an 
occasion  presented  itself.  But  he  had  not  much  oppor- 
tunity that  way,  for  the  meeting,  besides  lasting  a  very 
short  time,  was  by  no  means  a  verbose  one.  In  fact,  I 
do  not  remember  of  having  had  so  business-like  an  in- 
terview for  a  long  time  past  with  any  man,  big  or  little. 
The  greater  portion  of  it  was  occupied  by  the  cure  ex- 
amining my  papers.  Of  the  CarHst  passport  and  my 
letters  of  introduction,  he  did  not  seem  to  take  any 
notice  at  all.  But  he  examined  very  closely  my  other 
papers,  which,  being  worded  in  French,  gave  him,  it 
seemed,  a  good  deal  of  trouble,  but  he  went  through 
them  without  the  help  of  his  French-speaking  secre- 
tary; and  becoming  apparently  persuaded  that  I  was 
not  an  agent  of  the  Republicans,  or  of  his  enemies  at 
headquarters,  he  put  to  me  the  simple  and  short  ques- 
tion, "  Que  quiere  ustedf''  (What  do  you  want?) 

I  answered  that  a  great  deal  having  been  written  and 
told  of  his  and  liis  troops'  activity  in  the  present  war, 
it  was  my  duty,  as  a  journalist  sent  out  to  the  Carlists, 
to  ascertain  what  w^as  really  true  in  the  reports  circu- 
lated, and  what  were  the  operations  of  the  various 
Carlist  corps;  that  I  had  been  sent  not  to  him  alone, 


186  SPAlk  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

but  to  the  whole  of  the  Carlist  army,  as  my  Carlist 
passport  showed,  and  that  my  account  would  not  have 
been  complete  if  I  had  not  visited  his  corps  and  wit- 
nessed its  operations. 

"  Of  my  corps  you  can  see  but  a  small  portion  now," 
answered  the  cure.  "Our  men  are  all  gone  in  different 
directions,  and  I  myself  am  starting  at  once  for  a  place 
to  which  I  cannot  take  you.  But  on  some  future  occa- 
sion I  would  not  mind  your  being  present  at  any 
engagement  we  may  have,  provided  you  can  stand  fire 
and  great  fatigue.  But  before  allowing  you  to  join  us, 
I  must  make  some  inquiries  about  you  and  the  paper 
you  represent.  If  we  are  treated  by  El  Ileraldo  de 
Nueva  York  as  the  miserable  French  and  Spanish 
papers  treat  us,  I  shall  never  allow  you  to  come  here 
again ;  and  if  you  are  not  prepared  to  serve  the  cause 
of  monarchy  and  the  Catholic  religion,  you  had  better 
not  come  at  all." 

I  don't  know  why  the  gloomy,  bearded  head  of  the 
cure,  deeply  sunken  in  his  shoulders,  appeared  to  me  at 
this  moment  as  the  head  of  some  big  bull  that  was  go- 
ing to  charge  me. 

"  With  whom  are  you  acquainted  of  our  Carlist  peo- 
ple ? "  continued  Santa  Cruz,  walking  at  a  slow  pace 
abreast  with  me  towards  his  house,  the  guards  follow- 
ing us.     I  named  several  persons. 

"Very  well;  I  will  make  inquiries,  and  will  let  you 
know  when  you  may  come  here  again,  if  you  wish  it. 
I  must  start  now,  but  I  hope  I  shall  be  soon  back  to 
Vera.     If  you  like,  you  can  wait  here." 

Instead  of  waiting  in  the  miserable  village  till  the 
savage  cura  had  received  the  information  he  wanted 


SANTA    CRUZ,  187 

concerning  my  person,  I  started  back  for  St.-Jean-de- 
Luz,  where  I  knew  a  South  American  gentleman  who 
had  become  quite  mad  in  his  admiration  of  Santa 
Cruz's  genius,  was  his  most  fervent  protector  and 
friend,  and  had  supplied  him,  to  a  great  extent  at  his 
own  and  the  vicar  of  Tolosa's  expense,  with  nearly 
everything  the  fierce  cahecilla  wanted  when  he  first 
started.  Tliis  gentleman  was  not  in  town  when  I 
set  out  to  Vera,  and  I  thought  now  to  avail  myself 
of  his  assistance  for  further  studies  of  the  curious  type 
I  had  just  seen. 

Don  Isidoro,  —  for  such  was  the  name  of  the  enthusi- 
astic South  American,  who  is  not  to  be  confounded 
with  San  Isidro,  —  on  hearing  the  record  of  my  visit  to 
his  protege,  began  to  laugh,  saying  that  he  was  sure 
tlie  rather  rude  impression  Santa  Cruz  had  produced 
upon  me  would  vanish  the  next  time  I  saw  him.  "  He 
is  a  most  charming  man,"  assured  Don  Isidoro.  "You 
shall  see  yourself.  I  have  just  got  a  note  from  him, 
saying  that  he  will  be  back  at  Vera  on  Sunday  next, 
and  we  shall  go  and  have  dinner  with  him."  And 
so  we  went  and  had  dinner,  and  a  pretty  good  one ; 
for  there  was  salmon  fresh  out  of  the  Bidassoa,  and 
chicken,  and  a  bottle  of  sherry,  and  even  some  dessert. 
Don  Isidoro  was  too  well  known  by  Santa  Cruz's  men 
for  us  to  be  in  any  way  molested  on  our  journey.  We 
went  straight  to  the  town  square,  and  met  the  cure 
returning  from  mass  with  his  usual  escort  of  eight  crack 
men.  Whether  it  was  that  he  had  put  on  a  clean  shirt, 
or  that  he  had  cut  his  hair,  I  cannot  say;  but  there  was 
certainly  a  great  improvement  in  his  appearance.  He 
looked  much  younger,  and  when  he  smiled  on  seeing 


188  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

Don  Isidore,  and  kissed  him,  his  face  brightened  up 
considerably,  and  he  looked  almost  handsome. 

By  the  way,  none  of  the  portraits  published  of  Santa 
Cruz  have  the  slightest  likeness  to  him.  He  is  every- 
where represented  as  a  very  dark  man,  while  in  reality 
he  is  quite  fair ;  certainly  not  fair  in  the  sense  of  Scotch 
or  German  fairness,  but  what  is  called  blond  m  France, 
which  is  equally  as  far  from  dark  brown  or  black  as 
from  blond  cendre.  His  blue  eyes  are  rather  deeply 
seated,  but  that  does  not  prevent  them  from  looking 
quite  bright  when  the  face  becomes  otherwise  enli- 
vened. His  teeth  are  irreproachable,  and  though  the 
full  beard  he  wears  greatly  conceals  the  expression  of 
his  mouth,  what  is  to  be  seen  of  it  when  he  smiles  is 
rather  attractive  than  otherwise.  He  is  under  the 
middle  height,  but  built  like  an  athlete.  I  remember 
him  sitting  cross-legged  and  arranging  his  stockings 
(he  wears  long  stockings,  not  socks,  and  ties  them  with 
a  garter).  I  was  puzzled  at  the  strength  and  form  of 
his  calves.  He  is  now  thirty-two  years  of  age,  and  it 
would  seem  that  it  is  within  the  last  three  years,  since 
he  has  been  lead/ing  the  mountain  guerilla  life,  that  he 
lias  so  improved  in  health.  But  though  he  might  have 
been  thinner  formerly,  he  must  always  have  been  strong, 
for  even  as  a  student  of  the  seminary  of  Tolosa  he  was 
reputed  for  his  agility  and  his  taste  for  bodily  exercise. 
When  Don  Isidoro  told  him  that  he  brought  me  for 
the  purpose  of  showing  me  that,  when  Santa  Cruz 
knew  people  and  could  rely  upon  them,  he  was  not  so 
fierce-looking  as  he  appeared  at  first  sight,  the  cure 
laughed,  shook  hands  with  me,  and  asked  me  at  once 
to  come  to  his  house. 


SANTA    CRUZ.  189 

During  nearly  the  whole  of  our  visit  the  conversa- 
tion ran  upon  the  illegality  of  the  behavior  of  Lizar- 
raga  and  other  generals  of  Don  Carlos  towards  Santa 
Cruz.  The  cure  was  evidently  quite  furious  against 
them.  He  said  all  the  accusations  of  cruelty  brought 
against  him  were  false ;  he  never  shot  any  one  except 
spies,  and  in  this  case  he  did  not  m'ake  any  difference 
whet-her  they  were  women  or  men.  He  also  never 
shot  prisoners,  but  his  men  were  sufficiently  good  sol- 
diers not  to  allow  themselves  to  be  taken  prisoners,  and 
seldom  captured  any.  When  they  fought  they  fought. 
As  a  matter  of  course,  there  was  no  end  of  talk  about 
the  hidden  reasons  which,  in  Santa  Cruz's  opinion, 
caused  the  Carlist  generals  to  oppose  him.  He  was 
not  a  military  man,  and  he  had  accomplished  more 
than  all  of  them  put  together.  He  armed  nearly  a 
thousand  men  without  having  a  penny,  while  they 
squandered  the  Carlist  money  right  and  left.  They 
pretended  to  be,  or  aimed  at  being  at  some  future  day, 
grandees  of  Spain,  while  he  was  a  poor  cure.  And  so 
on,  with  a  repetition  of  the  petty  and  uninteresting  de- 
tails which  characterize  every  personal  squabble.  The 
real  facts  are,  however,  that  Santa  Cruz,  having  been 
one  of  the  first  to  enter  into  Spain  when  the  move- 
ment began,  and  having  rendered  great  services  to  the 
cause,  made  somewhat  unreasonable  demands,  which 
the  generals  of  Don  Carlos  were  not  disposed  to  accede 
to,  simply  because  they  knew  that  a  leader  capable  of 
commanding  a  guerilla  party  of  a  couple  of  hundred 
men  was  not  on  that  account  necessarily  fit  for  the 
command  of  large  forces.  Santa  Cruz  being,  however, 
the  sort  of  man  who  thinks  himself  capable  of  every- 


190  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

thing,  wanted  not  only  to  be  made  commander-in-chief 
of  the  province  of  Guipuzcoa,  but  to  have  also  the 
whole  of  the  civil  administration  of  it  in  his  own 
hands,  and  the  counsellors  of  Don  Carlos,  knowing  the 
temper  of  the  man,  thought  that,  notwithstanding  his 
popularity  in  certain  districts,  he  was  sure  in  the  long 
run  to  spread  discontent,  and  to  estrange  the  whole 
province  through  the  stubbornness  and  savagery  of 
his  proceedings.  Santa  Cruz,  on  the  other  hand, 
thought  himself  inspired  by  the  "great  models"  which 
he  desired  to  imitate.  Soldiering  was  never  consid- 
ered incompatible  with  theology  in  Spain.  Not  to 
speak  of  more  olden  times,  Loyola  was  a  soldier  be- 
fore he  became  a  monk.  Espartero  was  preparing 
himself  to  become  a  monk  when  the  War  of  Inde- 
pendence made  him  a  soldier  instead.  During  the 
Seven  Years'  War,  an  obscure  cure  of  Villaviado,  of 
the  name  of  Geronimo  Merino,  began  like  Santa  Cruz, 
and  soon  became  quite  a  legendary  figure  among  the 
Carlists.  Cabrera,  though  he  never  managed  to  be- 
come a  cure,  was  a  student  in  a  seminary,  and  became 
a  soldier  only  when  expelled  from  it.  He  rose  to  the 
celebrity  he  possesses  now  among  iJie  Carlists,  chiefly 
through  his  violence.  Santa  Cruz  wished  to  imitate  all 
of  these,  and  to  unite  in  himself  a  combination  of  the 
most  salient  traits  of  each  of  them,  with  a  strong  ad- 
dition of  the  terrorist  tendencies  of  Mina  and  Zumala- 
carregui.  The  clumsy  and  wild  manner  in  which  he 
set  to  work  was  simply  the  result  of  his  utter  igno- 
rance. And  this  was  so  great  that  —  to  give  only  one 
instance  —  he  delivered  once  one  pound  of  common 
gunpowder  to  a  mining  engineer  he  had  captured  some- 


SANTA    CRUZ.  191 

where  among  the  numerous  mines  of  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  ordered  him  to  blow  up  with  it  the  big  iron 
bridge  of  Endelaza.  And  when  the  man  told  him  it 
was  impossible,  he  threatened  to  shoot  liim. 

But  notwithstanding  all  that,  I  firmly  believe,  from 
what  I  have  seen  of  that  man,  that  had  he  had  the 
leisure  to  devote  a  couple  of  years  to  reading  some- 
thing besides  his  prayer-book,  he  would  certainly  have 
acquired  a  very  different  notoriety  from  that  he  pos- 
sesses now.  His  life  is  in  itself  a  little  epic,  sufficiently 
interesting  to  warrant  my  giving  the  principal  inci- 
dents of  it  here,  as  they  were  narrated  to  me  by  Cruz 
Ochoa  in  the  presence  of  Santa  Cruz  himself,  during 
the  dinner.  Sefior  Cruz  Ochoa,  always  anxious  to 
extol  the  merits  of  his  chiefj  thought  it  very  convenient 
to  make  the  cure's  life  the  subject  of  dinner  talk  with 
a  man  he  supposed  likely  to  put  a  good  deal  of  what 
he  lieard  into  print,  and  Santa  Cruz  did  not  seem  to 
object  to  it,  for  he  listened  the  whole  time,  and  fre- 
quently corrected  his  secretary. 


Don  Manuel  Santa  Cruz  was  born  in  1842,  at  Eldu- 
ayen,  an  obscure  mountain  village  in  Guij^uzcoa.  Hav- 
ing early  lost  his  parents,  he  was,  together  with  his 
only  sister,  brought  up  in  the  almshouse  of  Tolosa.  A 
cure,  who  afterwards  became  the  vicar  of  that  town, 
and  one  of  the  chief  supporters  of  Santa  Cruz,  discov- 
ered some  intelligence  in  the  almshouse  boy,  and  placed 
him  in  the  seminary.  On  the  conclusion  of  his  studies, 
Santa  Cruz  was  appointed  parish  priest  of  Hernialde, 


192  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

a  village  within  a  gun-shot  of  Tolosa,  and  a  f;lace  he 
has  often  frequented  since  in  his  new  capacity  of  a 
cabecilla.  The  young  cure  quickly  made  himself  a 
high  reputation  for  the  purity  of  his  life,  and  for  the 
indomitable  zeal  with  which  he  performed  his  duty 
among  the  peasants  scattered  in  the  isolated  farms 
around  his  village.  In  1870  a  small  Carlist  rising  broke 
out,  and  was  soon  suppressed  ;  but  one  of  its  leaders 
managed  to  save  some  arms  from  capture,  and  in- 
trusted them  to  the  care  of  Santa  Cruz.  The  govern- 
ment became  aware  of  it  in  about  a  year's  time,  and 
sent  some  Civil  Guards  to  arrest  the  cure  just  as  he 
was  leaving  the  church  after  having  celebrated  mass. 
On  the  guards  showing  to  him  the  order  they  had,  he 
answered  that  he  was  perfectly  ready  to  give  himself 
up,  —  though  he  did  not  know  the  reason  for  which  he 
was  arrested,  —  but  asked  a  few  minutes  to  take  his 
meal  and  change  his  clothes;  and  while  the  men  were 
waiting  for  him  at  the  entrance  of  his  house,  he  slipped 
out  in  disguise,  and  was  never  seen  more.  That  was 
his  first  trick,  and  since  then  begins  the  epic  of  his 
life.  After  having  wandered  for  several  months  in 
Spain,  constantly  chased  by  the  troops,  he  escaped  to 
France ;  but  as  he  had  neither  papers  nor  any  knowl- 
edge of  the  French  language,  he  was  soon  tracked  by 
the  gendarmes,  and  had  once  a  regular  run  with  them 
through  the  whole  town  of  St.-Jean-de-Luz,  yet  man- 
aged to  get  off,  and  to  escape  across  the  frontier.  This 
was  not  long  before  the  Carlist  rising  of  1872,  and 
Santa  Cruz  had  consequently  no  great  difficulty  in  soon 
finding  a  safe  abode  in  his  native  land.  On  having 
entered  in  April  of  that  year  as  chaplain  into  the  baud 


SANTA    CRUZ.  193 

of  Recondo,  he  became  the  favorite  of  the  volunteers, 
and  even  a  dangerous  rival  of  his  commander,  if  not 
in  any  official  capacity,  at  all  events  through  the  influ- 
ence he  exercised  over  the  men.  When  Don  Carlos 
was  surprised  at  Oroquieta,  and  when  afterwards  the 
Amorovieta  Convention  was  signed,  and  Recondo  sur- 
rendered his  arms,  Santa  Cruz  treated  him  in  the  way 
I  have  already  mentioned  when  speaking  of  Amilibia, 
and  declared  that  at  all  events  he  would  not  surrender, 
and  with  eleven  men,  upon  whom  he  could  firmly  rely, 
he  took  to  the  mountains.  A  few  days  later,  a  party 
of  Amadeo's  soldiers  was  passing  from  Mondragon  to 
Onate.  They  were  about  forty  in  number,  and  had  a 
small  quantity  of  arms  which  they  were  carrying  to 
the  latter  town.  Santa  Cruz,  having  learned  this,  at- 
tacked them  in  a  narrow  gorge,  took  all  the  arms  away, 
buiied  them  in  a  secure  spot,  and  I  found  them  all 
doing  service  w^hen  I  was  at  Vera. 

During  this  skirmish  he  had  a  man  wounded,  and 
while  he  was  carrying  him  one  day  to  some  isolated 
farm,  a  detachment  sent  in  pursuit  captured  him, 
together  with  the  wounded  man.  Santa  Cruz  was  now* 
to  be  shot  as  soon  as  he  should  be  brought  to  Tolosa. 
But  during  the  march  to  that  town  the  escorting  party 
had  to  pass  a  night  in  some  village  on  the  road.  Santa 
Cruz,  with  his  hands  and  legs  tied,  was,  for  greater  se- 
curity, locked  up  on  the  third  floor  of  the  house.  Yet, 
on  the  next  morning,  w^hen  the  party  was  to  start,  no 
Santa  Cruz  was  to  be  seen  ;  at  the  back  window  were 
only  to  be  found  two  sheets  tied  together,  by  means  of 
which  he  had  descended  from  his  temporary  prison. 
The  Carlists  having  everywhere  surrendered  and  been 
13 


194  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

dispersed,  he  could  not  remain  long  in  Spain,  and  had 
again  to  fly  to  France.  But  the  government  of  Amadeo 
had  communicated  with  the  French  authorities  about 
the  presence  of  the  man,  who  began  already  to  become 
a  notoriety,  and  the  police  of  St.-Jean-de-Luz  captured 
him  once  more,  and  sent  him  for  internment  to  Nantes. 
Yet  the  city  of  plums  did  not  seem  to  have  taken  his 
fancy,  for  he  disappeared  about  six  hours  after  his  in- 
ternment, and  returned  again  to  St.-Jean-de-Luz,  where, 
with  the  aid  of  Don  Isidoro,  who  enjoys  certain  consu- 
lar privileges,  he  safely  resided  up  till  the  winter  of 
1872,  when  the  Yicar  of  Tolosa  and  the  hospitable 
host  of  Santa  Cruz  supplied  him  not  only  with  money, 
but  with  arms,  ammunition,  and  everything  necessary 
for  the  new  attempt  to  raise  the  Carlist  banner  in  the 
Guipuzcoa.  On  the  1st  of  December  of  that  year, 
when  Don  Carlos  had  not  yet  quite  made  up  his  mind 
whether  he  should  embark  upon  a  new  campaign, 
Santa  Cruz  crossed  at  Biriatou  with  thirty-seven  men, 
marched  straight  off  towards  St.  Sebastian,  upset  a 
mail  train  bound  to  Madrid,  and  began  thus  both  his 
now  famous  career,  and  at  the  same  time  gave  the  sig- 
nal for  the  present  Carlist  rising. 

Up  till  last  spring  everything  went  right  enough. 
Santa  Cruz  spread  terror  all  along  the  French  frontier 
and  throughout  the  province  of  Guipuzcoa.  When- 
ever he  encountered  large  Republican  forces,  which 
w^ere  more  than  a  match  for  him,  he  took  to  flight ; 
but  whenever  he  saw  himself  strong  enough,  he  fought 
desj^erately,  and,  as  a  rule,  came  out  victorious,  and 
slaughtered  every  enemy  who  did  not  escape  in  quick 
time.     But   in   the   spring,   when   Lizarraga   was   ap- 


SANTA    CRUZ.  195 

pointed  commander-general  of  Guipuzcoa,  a  quarrel 
broke  out  between  him  and  Santa  Cruz,  and  both  had 
then,  practically,  two  wars  to  carry  on,  the  one  with  the 
enemy,  and  the  other  between  themselves.  When 
Lizarraga  issued  the  sentence  of  death  against  Santa 
Cruz,  the  cura  answered  by  a  similar  sentence  against 
Lizarr^'iga,  and  for  a  considerable  time  got  the  best  of 
the  struggle,  for,  being  nearer  to  the  frontier  and 
to  the  sea,  it  was  always  in  his  power  to  capture  the 
arms  and  ammunition  which  were  intended  for  his 
general. 

Don  Carlos,  Elio,  Yaldespina,  everybody,  tried  in 
every  way  to  settle  the  quarrel;  but  all  the  efforts 
failed,  Santa  Cruz  not  being  disposed  to  listen  to  any- 
thing before  Lizarraga  was  removed,  and  the  whole 
of  Guipuzcoa  given  into  his  hands.  This  state  of  af- 
fairs lasted  for  about  two  months  ;  till  Elio,  seeing  that 
the  matter  caused  quite  a  split  in  the  party,  ordered 
Valdespina  to  march  with  something  like  fifteen  hun- 
dred men  against  Santa  Cruz,  to  capture  him,  to  carry 
out  the  sentence,  if  it  was  necessary,  or  to  release  him, 
on  the  condition  that  he  should  leave  for  France,  if* 
the  marquis  thought  that  the  former  services  he  gen- 
dered to  the  cause  justified  such  a  course  of  clemency. 
Old  Yaldespina  opened  this  campaign  on  the  24th  of 
June,  and  had  to  work  for  fully  a  fortnight  before  he 
was  capable  of  surprising  Santa  Cruz  at  Vera,  sur- 
rounding his  house,  and  making  him  surrender.  On 
the  9th  of  July  a  convention  was  signed  between  the 
marquis  and  the  cure,  according  to  which  Santa  Cruz 
was  to  give  up  all  his  men,  ammunition,  arms,  and  pro- 
visions, to  be  himself  escorted  to  France,  and  never  to 


196  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

return  more  unless  called  by  the  king.  His  men  were 
taken  down  to  the  Bastan  valley,  where  they  were  dis- 
tributed between  the  various  other  battalions,  and  Santa 
Cruz,  with  three  or  four  of  his  followers,  passed  the 
Pyrenees.  Yet,  notwithstanding  the  convention,  he 
managed  to  surrender  only  one  cannon  out  of  the  two 
he  had,  concealing  the  other  somewhere  in  the  moun- 
tains, together  with  a  considerable  number  of  rifles, 
both  of  which  he  expects  some  day  to  serve  him  again. 
But,  in  consequence  of  the  reckless  way  in  which 
everything  is  done  in  Spain,  the  fact  of  his  having 
still  retained  some  arms  was  discovered  only  when  he 
was  beyond  the  frontier. 

Santa  Cruz  was  now  sufiiciently  experienced  in  the 
manner  in  which  things  are  managed  in  France  not  to 
fall  again  into  the  hands  of  the  French  police.  Him- 
self, his  secretary,  Cruz  Ochoa,  his  lieutenant,  Estevan 
Indart,  whom  we  saw  lying  on  his  bed  in  a  topsy-turvy 
position,  the  fierce  Francisco,  commander  of  Arachu- 
legui,  and  the  personal  servants  of  Santa  Cruz,  were 
the  men  who  passed  with  him  into  France,  lived  for 
some  time  in  a  small  village  near  Bordeaux,  and  sub- 
sequently, when  the  sensation  caused  by  Santa  Cruz's 
exploits  had  a  little  cooled  down,  returned  again  to 
St.-Jean-de-Luz. 

It  might,  perhaps,  be  worth  mentioning  here,  as  a 
curious  characteristic  of  the  fierce  cwra,  that  the  whole 
time  of  his  residence  in  France  he  entirely  devoted  to 
military  studies.  He  surrounded  himself  with  various 
military  w^orks,  and  with  French-Spanish  dictionaries, 
and  when  I  saw  him  again  in  September,  1873,  at  Don 
Isidore's  house,  he  spoke  a  very  fair  French,  and  his 


SANTA    CRUZ.  197 

reading  of  military  books  has  also  evidently  influenced 
his  mind,  for  he  no  longer  criticised  the  chiefs  from 
any  personal  point  of  view,  but  from  the  consideration 
of  their  strategic  operations,  which  of  course  he  did 
not  approve.  In  talking  on  these  matters  he  used 
military  terms,  of  the  meaning  of  which,  I  am  per- 
fectly sure,  he  had  no  idea  of  three  or  four  months  pre- 
vious. 

But  while  he  was  thus  storing  military  knowledge, 
the  adherents  he  had  with  him,  and  who  were  regular 
Basques,  incapable  of  anything  except  hard  fighting 
or  hard  field  work,  got  sick  of  their  idle  leisure  in 
France,  and  wanted  to  get  back  at  any  price  into  Spain 
again.  According  to  the  terms  of  the  convention, 
none  of  them  had  the  right  to  return.  But  this  was 
disregarded  ;  and  they  soon  passed  the  frontier,  and 
were  attempting  once  more  to  reunite  the  dispersed 
men  of  Santa  Cruz's  band.  The  Marquis  of  Las  Hor- 
mazas,  on  learning  of  their  being  near  Vera,  marched 
out  one  day  with  a  couple  of  dozen  reliable  men,  cap- 
tured the  three  Santa  Cruz's  fellows,  disarmed  them, 
tied  their  hands  and  legs,  carried  them  to  Lizarraga's 
headquarters,  where  they  were  shot  off*-hand  for  the 
breach  of  the  convention,  upon  the  strength  of  which 
they  were  released.  Cruz  Ochoa  was  not  among  them, 
and  disappeared  from  the  stage  altogether,  while  Santa 
Cruz  is  still  in  France,  waiting  for  a  cliance  to  resume 
his  activity.  Pie  is  not  a  man  who  would  withhold 
from  any  attempt  of  that  sort  on  account  of  being 
afraid  to  provoke  internal  discords  in  the  party  he  pre- 
tends to  serve.  The  fellow  is  decidedly  bent  on  mis- 
chief, and  is  endowed  with  all  the  capacities  necessary 


198  SPAIN  AND  THE  SPANIARDS. 

for  doing  a  good  deal  of  it.  No  one  could  be  aston- 
ished at  hearing  of  his  being  actively  at  work  again, 
and  one  may  safely  predict  that,  unless  he  be  captured 
and  shot  at  the  very  outset,  his  next  onslaught  will  be 
fiercer  than  ever. 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  199 


CHAPTER  XL 

CAMPO    DEL    HONOR. 

THE  Field  of  Honor  is  nowhere  in  particular.  It 
may  sometimes  be  on  the  bald  top  of  a  hill,  some- 
times in  a  wayside  hut,  sometimes  at  the  bottom  of  a 
God-forsaken  valley,  or  rather  of  a  loop-hole  amidst  the 
mountains.  It  always  reminded  me  of  those  Conti- 
nental hats,  watches,  and  umbrellas  upon  which  the 
rather  vague  stamp  of  "  London  "  is  marked,  but  a  mere 
look  at  which  tells  you  at  once  that  they  have  issued 
from  the  back  workshop  of  some  half-starved  German 
working  man.  The  Carlists  invented  this  Campo  del 
Honor,  in  the  first  place,  because  they  thought  they 
were  really  doing  an  honorable  work;  and,  in  the  sec- 
ond, because  they  had  reasons  for  not  wishing  to  give 
their  exact  address.  Orders  or  manifestoes  issued  by 
Don  Carlos  or  any  of  his  generals  being  dated  from 
the  "Field  of  Honor,"  no  clew  is  given  the  enemy  as 
to  the  whereabouts  of  the  Carlist  forces. 

Up  till  July  last  there  was  no  end  of  Campos  del 
Honor ^  for  every  small  cahecilla  had  the  right  of  dating 
his  communications  from  that  indefinite  locality.  But 
when  Don  Carlos  entered  Spain,  the  Field  of  Honor, 
par  excellence^  became  his  headquarters. 

The  Cailist  generals  were  greatly  opposed  to  the 


200  SPAIN  AND    THE  SPANIARDS. 

entry  of  the  Pretender  into  Spain,  before  they  had 
quite  organized  the  troops  with  which  they  intended 
to  carry  on  the  struggle.  But  Don  Carlos  seems  to 
have  become  sick  of  his  retreat,  and  acting  upon  his 
own  responsibility,  entered  Spain  without  informing 
any  of  his  generals ;  and  it  must  be  said  that  the  mo- 
ment he  selected  for  his  entry  denoted,  on  his  part,  a 
larger  amount  of  intelligence  than  is  usually  attributed 
to  him. 

On  the  9th  of  July,  1873,  his  partisans  obtained  a 
very  important  victory  over  the  Republican  troops 
near  Ripoll,  in  Catalonia.  They  captured  something 
over  six  hundred  prisoners,  killed  Brigadier  Cabrinetty, 
took  a  couple  of  cannons  and  a  large  quantity  of  arms 
and  ammunition.  A  partial  Carlist  rising  broke  out 
about  the  same  time  in  the  province  of  Leon  and  in 
Galicia;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  news  was  spread 
that  Malaga,  Murcia,  Seville,  Alcoy,  Granada,  and  Ca- 
diz were  in  the  hands  of  the  Intransigentes^  and  that 
a  sort  of  commune  had  been  established  at  Carthagena. 
Don  Carlos  received  also  information  that  Valdespina 
had  captured  Santa  Cruz,  and  signed  a  convention,  ac- 
cording to  which  all  internal  Carlist  differences  seemed 
to  have  been  settled.  At  the  same  time  a  considerable 
landing  of  arras  and  ammunition  for  the  Carlists  had 
taken  place  at  Lequeitio,  and  enabled  the  Carlist  chiefs 
to  arm  at  least  six  or  seven  thousand  fresh  volunteers. 
The  moment  really  seemed  most  favorable  to  the  Pre- 
tender for  the  commencement  of  his  campaign ;  and 
without  saying  a  word  to  even  his  most  intimate  coun- 
cillors, Don  Carlos  left  the  chateau  of  St.  Lon  on  the 
15th  of  July  for  Bayonne,  on  his  way  through  which 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR,  201 

town  to  the  village  of  Ustariz,  he  gave  orders  for  his 
horses  and  equipment  to  be  forwarded  to  Zugar- 
ramurdy. 

The  next  morning,  at  five  o'clock,  the  gates  of  a 
chateau,  situated  within  a  mile  of  Ustariz,  were  opened 
in  order  to  allow  a  riding  party  of  five  gentlemen  in 
private  clothes  to  pass  out,  apparently  for  the  purpose 
of  enjoying  the  fresh  morning  air  of  the  mountains. 
Three  of  the  five  gentlemen  were  Frenchmen,  well 
known  in  the  neighborhood,  and  the  two  others  were 
guests  of  theirs.  They  took  the  direction  of  the  hills 
and  forests  of  St.  Pee  and  Sare,  and  soon  disappeared 
in  the  mountain  paths.  The  morning  was  most  lovely, 
and  the  company  seemed  greatly  to  enjoy  their  ride. 
Neither  gendarmes  nor  custom-house  officers  were  en- 
countered ;  but,  even  had  the  case  been  otherwise,  the 
three  French  gentlemen  could  not  have  been  stopped, 
while  their  foreign  guests  were  provided  with  all  the 
papers  necessary  for  proving  that  they  were  neither 
Carlists,  nor  even  Spaniards.* 

*  How  far  Don  Carlos  and  his  French  friends  set  M.  Thiers 
and  his  police  at  defiance,  may  be  seen  from  the  subjoined  de- 
cree issued  on  the  27th  of  October,  1872  :  — 

"  Le  ministre  de  I'interieur, 

*' Vu  Particle  7  de  la  loi  des  13  et  21  novembre  et  3  d^cembre 
1849,  ainsi  conc^u : 

"  Vu  I'article  8  de  la  meme  loi,  ainsi  con9u : 

*' Vu  les  rapports  de  MM.  les  prefets  des  Basses-Pyr6n6es  et 
de  la  Gironde,  etablissant  que  le  prince  don  Carlos  de  Bourbon, 
due  de  Madrid,  se  serait  livre  dans  ces  deux  departements  a  des 


202  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

As  soon  as  the  party  turned  off  the  high  road,  and 
entered  the  forest  paths,  every  chance  of  annoyance 
was  gone,  and  one  of  the  two  foreign-looking  gentle- 
men, riding  an  excellent  bay  Irish  hunter,  urged  his 
horse  ahead  of  the  party,  who  evidently  treated  him 
with  the  respect  due  to  a  personage  of  some  impor- 
tance. The  other  foreigner  (a  young  and  fair-looking 
man)  followed  close  behind  him.  The  former  was  Don 
Carlos  de  Bourbon ;  the  latter  his  orderly  officer,  Ponce 
de  Leon,  grandee  of  Spain. 

After  having  ridden  for  a  couple  of  hours,  the  party 
reached  the  frontier,  crossed  it  at  the  foot  of  Pena  de 
Plata,  and  alighted  at  a  small  smuggler's  inn  close  by 

manoeuvres  ayant  pour  but  de  fomenter  la  guerre  civile  dans  un 
pays  allie  de  la  France ; 

"  Considerant  que  la  presence  de  I'^tranger  sus-designe  sur  le 
territoire  fran9ais  est  de  nature  a  compromettre  la  s^iret^  pu- 
blique : 

''Arrete: 
"Art.  1«'.    II  est  enjoint  a  S.  A.  R.  le  prince  don  Carlos  de 
Bourbon,  due  de  Madrid,  de  sortir  du  territoire  francjais. 

*'  Art.  2.  M.  Goullez,  commissaire  general  de  police,  attache 
a  la  direction  de  la  silrete  generale,  est  charge  de  I'execution  du 
present  arrdte. 

"A  Versailles,  le  27  octobre  1872. 

"  Xe  ministre  de  Vinterieury 
"ViCTOK  Lefkanc. 
"  Pour  ampliation : 
"  Le  directeur  de  la  surete  generale^ 
"De  Neevaux." 

The  Spanish  Pretender  resided  and  carried  on  his  affairs  on 
the  French  soil  till  the  16th  of  July,  1873 ;  that  is  to  say,  for 
fully  nine  months  after  his  expulsion  was  thus  ordered. 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  203 

the  border  line.  Marquis  de  Valdespina  and  General 
Lizarraga,  to  whom  word  had  been  sent  during  the 
night,  were  already  waiting  with  the  members  of  their 
staff  and  an  escort.  These  officers  having  saluted  Don 
Carlos  as  their  king,  and  kissed  his  hand,  the  prince 
proceeded  to  change  his  travelling  costume  for  a  bril- 
liant uniform  that  had  been  brought  over  beforehand, 
and  then  continued  his  journey  to  Zugarramurdy, 
where  some  three  thousand  volunteers  were  assembled 
to  greet  him.  A  Te  Deum  was  sung  in  the  village 
church,  after  which  the  villagers  and  the  volunteers 
pressed  forward  to  kiss  the  hand  of  him  whom  they 
acknowledged  as  their  sovereign  ;  and,  whatever  might 
have  been  the  political  opinions  of  the  spectator,  he 
could  hardly  fail  to  be  impressed  by  the  spontaneous 
enthusiasm  which  prevailed  in  the  mass  of  the  people 
assembled.  For  fully  an  hour  Don  Carlos  stood  on  the 
doorstep  of  the  church,  unable  to  proceed  forward. 
The  cries  were  really  deafening,  and  overpowered  the 
sound  of  the  cannons  firing  at  Pena  de  Plata,  and  the 
desperate  ringing  of  the  church  bells. 

As  soon  as  the  Pretender  was  able  to  liberate  him- 
self from  the  crowd  of  his  over-enthusiastic  adherents, 
he  went  to  the  village  prison  and  released  some  sixty 
Kepublicans  confined  in  it,  gave  each  of  them  ten 
francs,  and  ordered  them  to  be  escorted  to  France. 
Afterwards,  he  visited  the  few  wounded  who  were  in 
the  village,  and  went  to  lunch  at  the  house  of  the  vil- 
lage priest,  whilst  the  volunteers  outside  the  house 
were  entertained  with  the  reading  of  the  following 
proclamation :  — 


204  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

^^  Vbluntarios  /  Invoking  the  God  of  armies,  and 
listening  to  the  voice  of  agonized  Spain,  I  present  my- 
self amongst  you  fully  coutident  of  your  courage  and 
your  loyalty. 

"  Poor  in  resources,  but  rich  in  faith  and  heroism,  you 
have  gloriously  maintained  an  almost  incredible,  fabu- 
lous campaign,  and  in  the  midst  of  unceasing  priva- 
tions and  fatigues  you  have  asked  only  for  one  thing 
—  arms. 

"  My  efforts  for  satisfying-  this  want  will  not  have 
been  quite  fruitless.  And  having,  as  far  as  it  was  in 
ray  power,  fulfilled  that  duty,  I  come  now  to  perform 
another,  and  one  much  more  pleasant  to  my  heart.  I 
come  to  combat,  like  yourselves,  for  our  fatherland,  and 
for  our  God.  No  sort  of  political  consideration  shall 
compel  me  longer  to  look  on,  my  arms  folded,  at  this 
heroic  struggle. 

"I  deplore  the  blindness  of  the  army  which  fights 
against  us,  because  it  does  not  know  you,  and  does  not 
know  me.  Both  you  and  myself  would  have  received 
it  with  open  arms  if  in  an  hour  of  inspiration  it  could 
have  perceived  that  the  Monarchical  flag  had  been  for 
fifteen  centuries  the  flag  of  all  the  glories  and  honors 
of  the  Spanish  army,  and  if  it  had  understood  that  the 
only  true  Monarchical  flag  is  my  banner  —  the  banner 
of  Legitimacy  and  Right. 

"  But  as,  unhappily,  this  is  not  yet  clear  to  them,  we 
are  compelled  to  subdue  by  force  a  ruinous  and  impious 
revolution  which  maintains  itself  only  by  violence. 

"It  is  with  irrepressible  emotion  that  I  receive  the 
sincere  homage  of  your  enthusiastic  loyalty,  and  that  I 
put  my  feet  on  the  noble  Vasco-Navarre  soil,  whence 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  205 

I  address  now  the  expression  of  my  gratitude  to  the 
generous  defenders  of  the  just  cause,  and  speak  my 
friendly  welcome  to  all  the  Spaniards. 

"  Spain  asks  us  with  loud  cries  to  come  to  her  rescue ! 

"  Volunteers !  forward  ! 

"Volunteers,  Spain  says  that  she  is  dying! 

"  Volunteers,  let  us  save  her ! 

"  Carlos. 

*'  ZuGARRAMUKDY,  16th  July,  1873." 

Then  followed  a  review  of  troops,  a  visit  to  Pena  de 
Plata,  receptions  of  officers,  who  began  immediately  to 
pour  in  from  all  sides,  until  at  last  Don  Carlos  started 
with  some  two  thousand  five  hundred  men  and  two 
cannons  for  the  celebrated  Bastan  valley.  Here  began 
for  me  a  kind  of  life  I  shall  not  soon  forget. 

Marching,  reviews,  popular  demonstrations,  and  hunt- 
ing for  quarters  and  food,  took  me  during  six  weeks 
fully  eighteen  hours  daily,  leaving  barely  six  hours  a 
day  for  writing,  rest,  and  refreshment. 

As  every  one  expected  that  Don  Carlos  would  be 
anxious  to  begin  his  new  campaign  by  some  brilliant 
engagement,  and  as  we  knew  that  Elizondo,  the  first 
large  place  on  the  road  we  took,  had  been  fortified  by 
the  Republicans,  and  was  guarded  by  a  garrison  of 
same  six  hundred  men  under  Colonel  Tejada,  we  all 
hoped  to  have  a  nice  little  fight  in  a  couple  of  days. 
The  village  of  Arizcun  was  the  place  at  which  we  were 
to  pass  the  night  of  the  18th,  and  whence,  as  we  sup- 
posed, we  were  to  move  on  the  next  morning  for  an 
attack.  But  it  turned  out  that,  except  some  manoeu- 
vres upon  the  surrounding  heights,  w^e  had  to  witness 


206  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

no  military  spectacle  of  any  sort.  The  troops  com- 
manded by  General  Lizarraga  manoeuvred  very  well, 
satisfied  Don  Carlos  thoroughly,  and  showed  the  col- 
umn of  Tejada  that  the  Carlists  were  already  in  suffi- 
cient numbers  to  protect  their  master.  That  was 
apparently  all  the  Carlist  generals  wanted  for  the  mo- 
ment. They  did  not  care  about  attacking  Elizondo, 
for  they  were  sure  to  lose  a  great  number  of  men,  and 
to  be  unable  to  hold  the  place  should  the  forces  of 
Pamplona  attempt  to  take  it  back  again ;  for  no  sup- 
port could  be  expected,  Elio's  troops  being  then  far 
away  in  the  Amezcoas.  But  the  general  himself,  leav- 
ing his  command  to  Dorregaray,  came  to  salute  his 
king  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  his  having  entered  Spain. 
The  old  gentleman  rode  on  horseback,  with  two  aides- 
de-camp  and  a  small  escort,  through  nearly  the  whole 
of  Navarre  to  meet  the  prince  at  Arizcun. 

It  was  probably  owing  to  Elio's  advice  that  we  had 
no  fight  at  Elizondo,  and  marched  next  morning  ofifthe 
high  road  to  those  abominable  rocky  paths  which  I  had 
never  been  able  to  reconcile  myself  with.  Narvarte, 
Labaen,  Erasun,  and  Leisa  were  the  little  mountain 
villages  which  had  successively  to  provide  with  food  and 
night  shelter  some  two  thousand  five  hundred  soldiers, 
a  king,  his  brilliant  staff  of  marquises  and  counts,  and 
two  or  three  hundred  horses  and  mules.  How  they 
managed  it  one  would  be  puzzled  to  say,  but  everybody 
had  some  shelter,  and  every  stomach  some  sort  of  nour- 
ishment. That  both  were  abominably  bad  can  be  easily 
imagined  ;  but  in  nearly  all  cases  the  bad  quality  of  the 
supply  was  fully  compensated  by  the  heartiness  with 
which  it  was  offered. 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  207 

Of  the  manner  in  which  Don  Carlos  was  received  by 
the  simple-minded  villagers,  no  one  can  make  one's  self 
an  idea,  unless  one  knows  the  temperament  and  notions 
of  the  Basque  people.  It  was  not  only  that  houses 
were  decorated  in  every  village  he  passed  through,  that 
green  stuflf  and  flowers  covered  the  streets,  that  cries 
of  "  F?«a  el  Reyf'^  '-^Ywa  Dona  Margarita!'*'*  and 
^''Vtva  la  Heligion  / '*''  gave  everybody  a  headache,  and 
that  every  man,  woman,  and  child  got  perfectly  mad  in 
attempting  to  kiss  anything  belonging  to  Carlos  Setimo, 
from  his  hand  down  to  the  tail  of  his  horse.  The  real 
degree  of  devotion  of  these-people  was  best  to  be  seen 
in  the  manner  in  which  the  wants  of  the  Carlist  col- 
umns were  attended  to.  When  the  Republicans  passed, 
all  that  still  existed  in  the  way  of  horses,  cattle,  sheep, 
and  pigs  were  high  up  in  the  mountains,  and  no  rations 
could  be  got  by  any  human  force  under  several  hours' 
time;  while  when  the  Carlists  passed  everything  was 
at  hand.  When  the  Republicans  passed,  the  men  were 
all  away  from  the  villages  ;  so  were  the  alcalde  and  the 
priest,  too ;  and  the  democratic  commander  had  to  get 
his  information  about  the  enemy  from  old  women  and 
children ;  while  the  smallest  Royalist  band  was  in- 
formed in  every  possible  way  by  the  members  of  the 
ayuntamiento  (municipal  council),  w^ho  were  the  first 
to  welcome  it,  and  every  man  of  the  village  was  quite 
ready  to  risk  his  life  for  the  sake  of  getting  the  band 
out  of  danger.  Don  Carlos  had  already  been  four  days 
in  Spain  before  the  commander  of  the  Pamplona  troops 
learned  it,  and  was  enabled  to  make  a  move ;  while  we 
learned  at  Narvarte  of  this  commander's  intention  to 
move  within  about  three  or  four  hours  after  his  trumpet 
had  called  out  the  regiments. 


208  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

Don  Carlos  was  quietly  taking  an  afternoon  walk 
through  the  village  of  Narvarte,  when  a  confidente^  or 
spy,  came  with  the  news  that  four  thousand  men  with 
six  cannons  were  leaving  Pamplona,  some  six  hours' 
march  distant  from  our  village.  A  council  of  war  was 
at  once  called,  consisting  of  Elio,  Lizarraga,  and  the 
Marquis  Valdespina,  and  the  question  whether  a  battle 
was  to  be  accepted  or  not  was  brought  before  them. 
Don  Carlos  appears  to  have  been  in  favor  of  a  fight, 
but  as  the  Carlist  forces  were  considerably  smaller  than 
those  of  their  enemy,  the  generals  insisted  upon  not 
accepting  a  battle,  and  continuing  the  march  for  a 
junction  with  Dorregaray.  Consequently,  in  a  couple 
of  hours,  off  we  marched,  very  much  as  if  we  were  fly- 
ing, for  we  scarcely  stopped  anywhere  for  more  than 
a  couple  of  hours,  from  Sunday  the  20th,  to  Tuesday 
the22d;  and  this  our  first  march  maybe  considered 
a  very  fair  specimen  of  Carlist  marches. 

To  begin  with,  we  left  Narvarte  about  six  P.  M.,  and 
had  to  march  all  night.  The  rocky  footpath  we  had 
to  follow  passed  within  a  gun-shot  of  San  Estevan, 
another  strongly-fortified  and  vvell-guarrled  Republican 
place.  A  company  of  good  shooters  could  have  com- 
pletely routed  our  column,  spread  in  an  endless  line  on 
a  most  impracticable  mountain  track.  Nothing  was, 
however,  attempted  by  the  llepublican  troops  shut  up 
behind  their  fortifications,  and  apparently  only  too  glad 
that  we  did  not  attack  them.  But  the  consciousness 
that  one  is  marching  under  such  unfavorable  conditions 
is  by  no  means  comforting.  Fancy  a  pitch-dark  night, 
a  most  horrible  Abyssinian  causeway,  which  makes  man 
and  horse  stumble  on  every  step,  and  is  constantly  and 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  209 

most  abruptly  going  up  and  down  hill;  add  to  that  the 
effect  produced  on  one's  nervous  system  by  orders  of  a 
general  dcsmoiitadura  (or  getting  off  the  horses)  and 
silencio^  a  strict  prohibition  of  anything  like  a  cigarette 
or  a  match  being  lighted,  and  you  will  have  a  fair  idea 
of  this  little  promenade.  We  knew,  of  course,  that  the 
Pamplona  column  was  unable  to  reach  us,  but  the 
proximity  of  the  San  Estevan  garrison,  actually  full 
masters  of  our  lives,  was  by  no  means  refreshing.  Our 
apprehensions  of  danger  calmed  down  only  after  mid- 
night, when  the  village  of  Labaen  was  reached,  where 
at  all  events  some  rest  was  allowed  to  our  exhausted 
limbs  and  nerves.  It  should  be  added  here,  however, 
that  Don  Carlos  and  his  generals  fully  shared  the  fa- 
tigue of  the  men.  All  of  them  walked  throuGjhout  at 
the  head  of  the  column,  leading  their  horses  by  the 
bridles,  and  having  but  a  small  vanguard  before  them. 
At  Labaen  a  rather  original  sight  presented  itself. 
The  place,  which  is  so  small  that  it  could  not  even  be 
called  a  village,  was  all  at  once  crammed  as  it  has  cer- 
tainly never  been  before.  It  was  utterly  impossible 
even  for  Don  Carlos  and  his  staff  to  move  a  single  step 
forward  before  the  vanguard  was  marched  to  its 
quarters,  consisting  of  a  couple  of  little  huts  outside 
the  village.  The  loud  talk  of  some  two  thousand 
men,  for  several  hours  kept  silent  and  now  set  at  lib- 
erty, the  neighing  of  horses,  the  roar  of  donkeys  and 
mules,  the  barking  of  dogs  —  everything  had  its  place 
m  this  picture  of  indescribable  confusion,  lit  by  means  of 
straw  torches  and  such  bits  of  wax  candle  as  could  be 
found  in  the  village  church.  It  took  us  two  hours  before 
every  one  of  the  officers,  men,  and  horses  had  shelter. 
14 


210  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

Of  food  there  could,  of  course,  be  no  question  at  such 
an  hour;  but  a  sound  sleep  and  a  little  cup  of  ever- 
lasting chocolate,  which  you  find  when  nothing  else 
can  be  found,  rendered  us  quite  fresh  and  bright  next 
morning. 

Don  Carlos,  who  is  invariably  entertained  at  the 
priests'  houses,  which,  as  a  rule,  are  the  best  in  the  vil- 
lages, had  here  an  opportunity  quite  unexpectedly  to 
show  his  courtesy  to  the  fair  sex.  The  Marchioness 
of  Yinialet,  whose  son  had  been  severely  wounded  at 
the  battle  of  Udave,  and  for  a  time  left  as  dead  on  the 
field,  came  to  see  him  at  the  ambulance  of  Lecumberri, 
and  was  on  her  way  back  to  Biarritz  when  we  met  her 
at  Labaen.  The  brave  lady  had  travelled  on  horseback, 
with  a  couple  of  guides,  all  the  way  from  the  fashiona- 
ble sea-side  place  to  the  frontier  of  Guipuzcoa,  and  the 
best  bed  in  the  priest's  house  was,  of  course,  given  to 
her.  On  the  next  morning,  when  the  troops  marched 
ojST  again-  and  passed  her  w  indow,  she  was  made  the 
object  of  an  ovation  which,  I  am  sure,  few  women  have 
ever  received. 

But  no  fatigues  or  privations  seemed  to  influence  in 
any  way  the  Carlists  volunteers.  Whenever  there  was 
no  prohibition,  singing  and  laughing  were  going  on  all 
day  long,  and  when  there  was  an  hour  to  spare  after 
dinner,  or  before  nightfall,  the  fandango  was  sure  to 
be  seen  danced  somewhere  in  the  village  square,  and 
ball-playing  everywhere.  At  Erasun,  half  way  be- 
tween Labaen  and  Leisa,  where  we  dined,  or  at  least 
were  supposed  to  dine,  the  mounted  body-guards  of 
Don  Carlos  gave  us  quite  a  performance  in  that  way. 
A  brass  band,  which  usually  played  not  only  on  entering 


CAMPO   DEL  HONOR.  211 

and  leaving  the  villages,  but  took  advantage  of  every 
halt,  began  to  play  a  national  dancing  tune,  and  nearly 
the  whole  of  the  horsemen  of  the  escort  set  at  once  to 
dance  the  fandango,  with  tumblers  half  full  of  wine  on 
their  heads.  The  great  thing  is  to  dance  so  as  not  to 
lose  a  drop  out  of  the  tumbler,  which  result  was  at- 
tained with  full  success  on  this  occasion,  to  the  perfect 
delight  of  the  population  of  Erasun,  and  to  the  apparent 
satisfaction  of  the  Pretender  himself,  who  was  looking 
out  of  the  window,  throwing  now  and  then  a  duro  (five- 
franc  piece)  to  the  most  clever  of  the  dancers.  To 
march  twenty  miles  over  mountains,  and  to  dance  and 
sing  as  soon  as  an  hour's  rest  is  given,  seem  quite  nat- 
ural to  the  Carlist  volunteers;  and  the  regular  Spanish 
army,  recruited  chiefly  outside  of  the  Vasco-Navarre 
provinces,  will  have  a  long  time  to  wait  before  it  equals 
the  Carlist  volunteers  in  agility,  endurance,  and  gayety. 
On  reaching  Leisa,  the  largest  of  the  villages  on  our 
way,  we  had  a  regular  triumphal  entry.  The  place 
was  brightly  decorated,  and  the  village  square  being 
a  rather  large  one,  a  march  past  had  been  got  up  of 
all  the  troops  we  j)ossessed,  with  the  band  playing, 
church  bell  ringing,  and  all  the  rest  of  it.  The  im- 
pression produced  on  the  inhabitants  of  Leisa  must 
have  been  very  strong  indeed,  for  the  landlady  at  whose 
house  I  had  my  quarters  cut  the  throats  of  two  spring 
chickens,  and  presented  me  with  them,  supposing,  prob- 
ably, that  I  had  something  to  do  Avith  the  grand  sight 
she  had  just  witnessed.  But,  alas!  though  I  had  for 
several  days  not  tasted  anything  beyond  miserable 
rations,  I  was  too  exhausted  to  be  able  even  to  look  at 
the  chickens.    They  went  straight  into  my  saddle-bags, 


212  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

and  were  on  the  next  morning  regularly  devoured  by 
a  number  of  my  companions  in  misfortune,  staff  officers 
of  the  Pretender.  All  I  saw  of  them  (I  mean  of  the 
chickens,  not  of  the  officers)  was  a  rather  dried  up  leg. 

But  these  triumphal  entries  and  marches  past  occu- 
pied rather  more  time  than  we  could  safely  afford,  for 
when  we  reached  Lecumberri  the  Pamplona  column 
turned  out  to  be  only  two  hours  behind  us,  "chastis- 
ing" the  Leisa  inhnbitants  for  the  reception  they  gave 
ns.  Matters  began  to  look  quite  unpleasant,  and  we 
pushed  off  more  smartly  than  ever  towards  the  quar- 
ters of  Dorregaray. 

It  was  only  on  the  24th  of  July,  fully  six  days  after 
his  entry  into  Spain,  that  Don  Carlos  was  out  of  danger 
of  capture.  There  was  an  expression  of  relief  to  be 
seen  on  every  one's  face  when,  on  approaching  Salinas 
de  Oro,  Dorregaray's  forces,  some  four  thousand  five 
hundred  strong,  with  two  additional  cannon,  appeared 
drawn  up  in  order  of  battle  on  the  surrounding  hills. 
The  Republican  commander-in-chief.  General  Sanchez 
Bregua,  having  missed  his  chance,  had  nothing  left  but 
quietly  to  retire.,  ordering  a  general  concentration  of 
troops  to  be  made  at  Vitoria,  in  the  direction  of  which 
Don  Carlos  had  evidently  to  move.  Knowing,  however, 
how  slow  the  Republicans  were  in  effecting  all  their 
movements.  General  Elio  did  not  seem  to  take  much 
notice  of  the  enemy's  prospective  arrangements.  The 
Carlists  marched  now  as  quietly  forward  as  if  there 
was  no  enemy  at  all,  enjoying  anew  no  end  of  enthusi- 
astic receptions  in  every  village  and  town,  and  having 
solemn  military  masses  and  Te  Deums  whenever  a 
suitable  occasion  presented  itself,  that  is  to  say,  wher- 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  213 

ever  any  miracle  has  been  formerly  performed  or  some 
hermitage  still  preserved.  In  this  manner  it  was  only 
on  the  29th  that  we  reached  the  neighborhood  of 
Vitoria,  leaving  thus  the  enemy  fully  five  days  to  effec- 
tuate his  concentration.  But  no  enemy  was  to  be  seen 
outside  that  city,  in  sight  of  which  we  then  passed  with 
all  the  smartness  of  an  invincible  army.  Only  at  a 
place  called  Ties  Puentes  did  we  see  some  traces  of 
the  Republican  cavalry;  but  as  no  attack  was  made 
upon  us,  we  pushed  on,  cut  the  railroad  between  Vitoria 
and  Miranda,  stopped  a  train,  took  out  of  it  eleven 
officers  going  to  re-enforce  the  garrison  of  Vitoria,  had 
them  sent  as  prisoners  to  Las  Amezcoas,  and  marched 
off  to  Orduiia,  the  ancient  Basque  city,  from  which 
our  journey  through  Biscay  was  to  begin. 

If  Don  Carlos  could  have  had  any  doubts  about  his 
popularity  in  the  Basque  provinces,4ug  journey  through 
the  rich  province  extending  from  the  plains  of  Vitoria 
to  the  walls  of  Bilbao  w^ould  have  finally  dissipated 
them.  British  loyalty  itself  has  never  produced  any- 
thing similar  to  the  receptions  Don  Carlos,  his  staff,  and 
the  several  thousand  men  marching  with  him  had 
to  enjoy  at  Orduna,  Durango,  and  Zornoza,  not  to 
speak  of  the  numberless  little  villages  situated  between 
these  towns.  Besides  the  province  being  throughout 
Carlist,  the  "  Biscayinos "  knew  that  "  His  Majesty 
Charles  VII.'s  "  object  was  to  revive  the  old  custom  of 
the  Kings  of  Spains  giving  their  oath  to  the  fueros 
under  the  traditional  oak  tree  at  Guernica.  True  that 
the  old  oak  under  which  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  swore, 
in  1476,  to  uphold  the  Basque  fueros^  had  been  long 
ago  cut  down  and  burned  by  the  French,  and  that 


214  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

another  planted  in  its  place  underwent  the  same  treat- 
ment from  the  hands  of  Queen  Christina's  generals. 
But,  somehow  or  other,  there  is  still  a  big  oak  on  the 
traditional  spot,  with  two  young  reserve  trees  by  its 
side.  On  the  2d  of  August  an  altar  was  dressed  with 
the  image  of  Nuestra  Senora  de  la  Antigua  on  it,  and 
Don  Carlos  de  Bourbon,  in  full  uniform  and  surrounded 
by  a  numerous  staff,  rode  down  from  Zornoza,  not  ex- 
actly to  swear  loyalty  to  the  fueros^  but  to  swear  that 
he  would  come  again  and  give  his  oath  to  uphold  them 
when  he  had  succeeded  in  conquering  the  throne  of 
his  ancestors,  and  when  his  coronation  as  King  of 
Spains  will  have  actually  made  him  "  Senor"  of  Bis- 
caya.  The  ceretnony  was  in  every  way  a  success,  and 
the  road  from  Zornoza  to  Guernica,  a  distance  of  sev- 
eral miles,  was  almost  as  thronged  with  people  as  Fleet 
Street  on  a  Lord  Mayor's  show.  Peasants  and  gentry 
from  all  parts  of  the  country  assembled  to  witness  the 
ceremony ;  but,  as  only  a  few  thousand  people  could 
possibly  find  access  to  Guernica  itself,  the  great  ma- 
jority had  to  content  themselves  with  a  mere  glance 
at  the  passing  king,  his  staff  and  escort,  only  the  most 
lucky  of  them  succeeding  in  kissing  the  hand  or  the  leg 
of  Don  Carlos,  or  perhaps  even  not  more  than  the  tail 
of  his  horse.  Some  of  the  old  women  got  quite  mad, 
cried  bitterly,  and  one  of  them,  in  screaming  out  her 
*'' Llorando  hdblo  V  fell  senseless  under  his  white 
Andalusian  stallion. 

Purposeless  and  unbusinesslike  as  all  these  military 
promenades  of  the  Pretender  may  look,  I  must  confess 
my  belief  that  Don  Carlos  has  done  more  for  his  cause 
by  this  tiresome  journey  through  Navarre,  Alava,  and 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  215 

Biscaya,  than  he  could  have  done  by  half  a  dozen  of 
those  mountain  "battles"  in  which  several  thousand 
cartridges  were  used  on  both  sides  for  the  purpose  of 
killing  two  and  wounding  three  men.  By  showing 
himself  to  the  Vasco-Navarre  population,  he  stimulated 
their  enthusiasm,  and  revived  the  courage  with  which 
they  have  to  bear  the  burden  of  the  war*  He  also  put 
a  stop  to  the  very  unfavorable  stories  which  began  to 
circulate  with  reference  to  the  reasons  of  his  absence. 
I  was  asked  myself,  by  some  of  the  peasants,  whether 
it  was  true  that  Don  Carlos  was  dead,  and  an  Italian 
cobbler  substituted  in  his  jolace,  and  by  others  whether 
it  was  true  that  he  was  living  in  Paris  in  debauchery. 
It  was  the  least  Don  Carlos  could  have  done,  to  come 
over  and  give  the  simple-minded  highlanders  at  least 
the  satisfaction  of  having  a  steady  look  at  him  for 
whom  they  sacrificed  so  readily  their  lives  and  their 
hard-earned  pesetas. 

There  was  another  point  also  in  which  his  appear- 
ance on  the  Spanish  soil  and  his  promenade  through 
the  provinces  had  a  favorable  effect.  On  the  news  of 
his  arrival,  Velasco  was  not  only  able  to  bring  his  Bis- 
caya bands  to  eigh^  strong  battalions,  but  to  get  up 
a  couple  of  Castilian  battalions  in  addition  to  them. 
These  two  battalions  formed  immediately  the  nucleus 

*  As  far  as  a  Spanish  alcalde's  statistics  can  be  relied  upon, 
over  seventy  per  cent,  of  the  yearly  produce  of  the  country  was, 
in  less  than  a  year,  swallowed  up  by  the  rations  alone,  both  Carlist 
and  Republican.  At  all  events  such  was  the  statement  made 
to  me  by  the  alcalde  of  Leisa ;  and  he  added,  that  that  was 
nothing  when  compared  with  the  hardships  imposed  upon  the 
peasants  by  heavy  money  contributions. 


216  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

of  a  separate  Castilian  force,  and  before  such  a  force 
has  been  got  up  there  can  be  little  thought  of  crossing 
the  Ebro,  for  the  provinces  of  Castile  would  not  stand 
an  invasion  of  Vasco-Navarre  men.  They  will  rise 
only  in  so  far  as  Carlism  shall  be  represented  to  them 
by  their  own  volunteers,  not  by  those  of  other  prov- 
inces. The  English  press  was  constantly  urging  upon 
Don  Carlos  to  cross  the  Ebro  if  he  desired  to  be 
regarded  with  proper  deference  by  London  leader 
writers ;  but  in  this  the  press  showed  an  utter  igno- 
rance of  Spanish  affairs  and  Spanish  character.  In 
the  first  place,  very  few  of  the  Yasco-Navarre  volun- 
teers would  care  to  march  beyond  the  Ebro.  They 
fight  well  and  willingly  at  home,  but  they  are  neither 
fit  nor  disposed  to  carry  on  war  in  the  plain.  In 
the  second,  if  Don  Carlos  enfered  Castile  with  three 
or  four  Castilian  battalions  and  plenty  of  fire-arms, 
he  could,  within  a  few  days,  have  quite  an  army  there, 
which  his  Navarre  and  Basque  troops  would  re-enforce, 
and  serve  as  a  reserve  to.  But  if  he  attempted  to 
enter  the  provinces  of  Castile  only  with  the  troops  he 
has  now,  he  would  appear  as  a  conqueror  entering  by 
the  help  of  strangers,  and  would  \q  received  accord- 
ingly. By  forming  the  two  Castilian  battalions,  Ve- 
lasco  has  built  the  first  arch  of  the  bridge  by  which 
Don  Carlos  may  some  day  cross  the  Ebro. 

But  if  the  entry  of  Don  Carlos  presented  some  real 
advantages,  it  had  also  a  good  many  most  comical 
sides.  First  of  all,  the  attention  which  the  Pretender 
and  his  courtiers  paid  to  all  the  popular  demonstra- 
tions of  the  peasants,  which,  after  all,  ought  to  be 
greatly  attributed  to  the  delight  with  which  the  simple- 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  217 

minded  highlanders  witnessed  pageants,  which  they 
have,  as  a  rule,  so  few  chances  of  seeing,  was  perfectly 
ridiculous.  Over  and  over  again  Don  Carlos  and  his 
courtiers  called  my  attention  to  petty  demonstrations 
of  loyalty,  and  to  the  patriotic  acclamations  with  which 
he  was  received  by  the  population  of  the  little  moun- 
tain villages.  There  can  be  no  doubt  whatever  that 
these  villagers  are  Carlists  at  heart,  and  the  best  proof 
of  it  is  in  the  willingness  with  which  they  sacrifice 
their  life  and  property  for  the  cause.  But  having  had 
occasion  to  talk  to  the  peasants  after  witnessing  the 
shows,  I  became  perfectly  satisfied,  from  the  rather 
pessimist  view  which  they  took  of  things  in  general, 
that  as  far  as  the  processions  were  concerned,  they 
would  be  just  as  much  interested  in  a  circus  cortege, 
with  camel  and  elephant,  passing  through  their  prov- 
inces. They  wanted  simply  a  spectacle,  and  that  is 
what  Don  Carlos  presented  to  them  —  mounted  as 
he  was  on  a  handsome  horse,  and  surrounded  by  a 
brilliant  staff,  upon  the  formation  and  arrangements 
of  which  he  has,  I  believe,  bestowed  more  thought 
than  on  any  other  subject  in  the  whole  of  his  life. 
The  Times  correspondent,  in  a  letter  from  the  Royal- 
ist headquarters,  September  15,  sketches  Don  Carlos 
in  the  following  terms  :  — 

"The  Republican  journals  of  Madrid  have  described 
Don  Carlos  as  being  a  mere  tool  in  the  hands  of  de- 
signing agents.  This  is  an  absurd  fabrication.  There 
are  few  men  less  easily  led,  either  in  politics  or  military 
matters,  for,  to  sound  common  sense,  and  a  keen  knowl- 
edge of  character,  he  adds  a  certain  amount  of  Teu- 
tonic obstinacy  and  perseverance,  qualities  which  make 


218  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

him  either  a  friend  to  be  admired,  or  a  foe  who  cannot 
be  trifled  with.  Very  Uberal  in  his  opinions,  and  far 
from  being  a  bigot  in  religious  matters,  his  favorite 
maxim  i^,  that  with  Spaniards  '  two  and  two  do  not 
make  four,'  and  he  says  the  nation  must  be  taught  its 
mistakes  by  degrees,  and  not  be  pulled  up  too  soon.'' 
The  impression  which  the  Pretender  produced  upon 
myself,  and  which  I  tried  to  describe  in  another  chap- 
ter, somtiwhat  differs  from  that  produced  on  the  able 
representative  of  the  great  journal;  and  I  am  almost 
sure  that  had  he  seen  the  Pretender  for  a  longer 
period,  and  not  when  he  was  addressing  the  Times, 
but  while  he  stood  "  at  ease,"  or  was  exhibiting  him- 
self in  his  military  promenades,  he  would  perhaps 
have  looked  at  him  from  a  different  point  of  view. 
But  whatever  may  be  the  correct  opinion  on  the  indi- 
vidual character  of  Don  Carlos,  he  seems  to  have  in 
himself  some  stuff  of  which  a  fair  constitutional  sover- 
eign could  be  made,  but  he  requires  to  be  taught  a 
good  many  serious  lessons  before  he  gets  to  power; 
for,  in  the  present  condition  of  his  ideas  and  views, 
he  is  no  more  fit  to  govern  a  people  than  the  author 
of  these  pages  is  fit  to  be  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 


There  is  no  need  to  speak  here  of  the  military  oper- 
ations which  took  place  in  the  north  of  Spain  since 
Don  Carlos  appeared  among  his  volunteers.  The 
student  of  contemporary  Spanish  history  will  find  them 
fully  recorded  in  the  files  of  his  newspapers ;  while  to 
the  general  pubhc  they  present  no  interest.     It  will 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  219 

be  sufficient  to  say  here  that  with  his  army  nearly 
fifty  thousand  strong,  the  Pretender  has  fought  a  good 
many  battles,  almost  invariably  got  the  best  of  the 
Republicans,  and  has  shown  quite  a  creditable  amount 
of  personal  courage.  What  we  have  to  talk  about  in 
this  chapter  is  the  life  in  the  Campo  del  Honor^  which 
is  really  original  enough  to  deserve  a  few  minutes' 
attention. 

To  purposelessly  march  day  and  night,  often  as  much 
as  thirty  or  forty  miles  a  day ;  never  to  know  where 
you  will  have  to  stop,  or  at  what  time  you  will  have 
to  start ;  frequently  without  a  slielter  till  very  late  at 
night,  and  still  more  frequently  devoured  by  vermin 
when  under  a  shelter;  exposed  all  day  to  a  burning  sun, 
with  little  to  eat  excei)t  stale  ammunition  bread,  and 
a  piece  of  mutton  which  your  servant  chars  under  the 
pretence  of  cooking ;  all  that,  and  a  good  many  things 
besides,  do  not  constitute  exactly  a  pleasant  sort  of 
life.  For  men  of  good  health  the  experiment  might 
have  proved  very  hurtful ;  at  all  events,  I  saw  a  good 
many  who,  although  they  came  in  perfectly  good 
health,  became  sickly  in  a  fortnight.  But  to  used-up 
individuals  of  the  journalistic  and  literary  class,  locked 
up,  as  a  rule,  the  greater  part  of  their  life  in  their 
rooms,  at  tiresome  and  dull  work,  sometimes  for  twelve 
and  fourteen  hours  a  day,  with  an  accompaniment  of 
sleepless  nights  and  all  the  rest  of  it,  a.Carlist  cam- 
paign may  prove  quite  a  beneficial  change.  At  all 
events,  such  was  my  experience.  Through  my  not 
having  seen  anything  like  a  book  during  six  months, 
the  improvement  in  my  sight  alone  was  quite  a  bless- 
ing, not  to  speak  of  the  influence  which  the  fresh  air 


220  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

of  the  mountains  and  the  constant  riding  produced 
on  an  exhausted  frame.  I  often  thought  that  with 
reference  to  health  Carlist  campaigning  very  much 
resembled  gambling.  Those  who  entered  into  it  with 
anything  to  lose,  were  pretty  sure  to  be  the  worse  off 
for  the  venture,  while  those  who  risked  but  little  might 
possibly  be  gainers. 

An  element  of  which  our  Campo  del  Honor  life  was 
perfectly  devoid,  was  dullness.  Idleness  was,  of  course, 
quite  an  unknown  thing  amidst  a  state  of  affairs  in 
which  five  or  six  consecutive  hours'  rest  was  all  a  man 
could  have  a  chance  of  getting.  If  it  happened  now 
and  then  that  a  whole  day's  repose  from  marching 
was  given,  there  were  plenty  of  things  to  be  attended 
to.  Saddles  and  bags  arranged ;  bits,  stirrups,  and 
spurs  polished  (a  work  of  which  your  Navarre  ser- 
vant would  obstinately  refuse  to  see  the  necessity)  ; 
horses  shod,  or  their  sore  backs  dressed;  some  old 
woman  to  be  hunted  up  sufficiently  indifferent  to  gos- 
siping with  the  voluntarios  to  undertake  the  washing 
of  your  linen ;  perhaps  a  bath  to  be  taken  in  some  dried- 
up  stream,  or  a  shave  at  the  shop  of  a  village  Figaro. 
But  the  getting  up  of  "fine  dinners"  was  the  prevail- 
ing occupation  on  such  occasion,  and  took  always  the 
greater  portion  of  the  day.  If  the  halt  happened  to 
be  in  a  town,  various  delicacies  in  the  shape  of  fruit, 
vegetables,  or  eggs  could  be  sometimes  discovered ; 
w^hile  if  it  was,  as  usual,  at  some  miserable  but  pretty 
safe  mountain  village,  excursions  into  the  valley  had 
to  be  made  to  get  something  more  inviting  than  the 
ordinary  rations.  The  details  of  one  or  two  of  such 
excursions  will  be  sufficiently  characteristic  to  give 
a  general  idea  of  the  rest. 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  221 

I  messed  with  Baron  Barbier,  one  of  the  officers 
of  the  Paris  squadron.  The  wretched  diet  we  were 
living  upon  made  us  at  times  quite  desponding ;  we, 
however,  managed  to  improve  things  by  buying,  for 
the  considerable  sum  of  twenty-two  dollars,  a  little 
Navarre  animal,  which  was  neither  a  horse,  nor  a 
mule,  nor  an  ass,  but  something  of  each  of  them  — 
to  harness  it  with  alforjas^  and  to  load  it  with  our 
luggage  and  such  provisions  as  we  could  occasionally 
get  from  France.  As  a  rule,  the  latter  consisted  of  a 
few  pots  of  "Liebig's  Extract,"  a  few  boxes  of  sar- 
dines, a  ball  of  Dutch  cheese,  and  similar  not  very 
perishable  articles.  The  great  chemist's  meat  extract 
proved  quite  invaluable.  About  half  a  spoonful  of  it 
put  into  the  liquid  of  boiled  potatoes  and  onions,  with 
a  good  deal  of  salt  and  pepper,  gave  always  an  excel- 
lent soup,  and  thus  with  the  aid  of  our  perambulating 
pantry,  we  sometimes  managed  to  get  up  quite  com- 
fortable meals.  One  day,  however,  when  we  were  at 
a  village  about  three  or  four  miles  from  Lecuniberri, 
our  provisions  became  exhausted,  and  nothing  was 
to  be  obtained  except  some  goat's  milk,  which  Bar- 
bier's  servant  succeeded  in  extorting  from  the  sup- 
plies of  our  landlady  by  making  desperate  love  to 
her.  The  important  question  arose  now  in  what 
shape  the  milk  should  be  served,  and,  after  due  con- 
sideration, we  decided  to  convert  it,  with  the  aid  of 
some  fideos  (vermicelli),  or  some  rice,  into  milk  soup. 
Neither  of  these  ingredients  was,  however,  to  be 
found  nearer  than  Lecumberri,  and  so  off  we  started 
at  once.  It  was  late  in  the  afternoon ;  rain  and  dark- 
ness set  in   before  we  reached   the   place.     My  com- 


222  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

panion  had,  into  the  bargain,  a  savage  stallion,  always 
walking  on  his  hind  legs,  as  if  objecting  to  liis  being 
considered  a  quadruped.  The  beast  was  altogether 
a  match  to  my  unbroken  mare,  so  that  there  was 
between  thera,  as  usual,  a  series  of  violent  attempts 
to  fight  during  the  journey.  But  on  arriving  at  Le- 
cumberri  we  were  fully  repaid  for  our  trouble,  for 
after  a  couple  of  hours'  seaich  we  found  not  only 
vermicelli,  but  potatoes,  coffee,  sugar,  a  couple  of 
bottles  of  Muscat  wine,  and  a  pound  or  so  of  man- 
teca.,  a  semi-liquid  lard,  sold  in  sausage-skins  about 
a  yard  long,  and  serving  as  a  substitute  for  butter, 
which  is  almost  unknown  in   Spain. 

While  we  were  thus  loading  our  saddle-bags  and 
our  top-coat  pockets,  Barbier  was  all  the  time  repeat- 
ing Milher's  celebrated  mHoublions  pas  que  nous  sons  a 
chival.  But  the  good  luck  we  had  in  finding  all  these 
delicacies  was  esteemed  too  great  for  us  to  intrust 
our  booty  to  any  messenger.  So  off  we  set  with 
the  precious  load,  and  the  usual  galloping,  rearing, 
kicking,  and  neighing  began,  of  course,  immediately ; 
the  bottles  were  broken,  the  wine  saturating  the  cof- 
fee and  sugar ;  the  sausage-skin  of  the  nianteca  burst, 
imbedding  our  supplies  in  its  greasy  contents ;  the 
potatoes  were  jerked  out  upon  the  road  by  the  gam- 
bols of  our  steeds,  and  only  the  vermicelli,  which 
had  been  carried  in  our  hands,  was,  though  wetted 
by  rain,  yet  saved  from  utter  destruction.  We  had 
thus  not  much  left  to  boast  o\\  yet  it  was  more 
than  the  majority  of  our  comrades  had,  and  we  set 
immediately  to  work  to  prepare  the  soup.  Unhap- 
pily, we  were  none  of  us  good  cooks,  and  our  servants 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  223 

still  worse  ones;  so  the  much-expected  dish  turned 
out  awfully  thick  and  lumpy,  and  the  wine-saturated 
sugar  gave  it  quite  a  novel  flavor.  Still  we  partook 
pretty  heartily  of  it,  and,  much  to  our  astonishment, 
were  both  taken  ill  in  a  couple  of  hours.  "There 
must  have  been  something  wrong  with  that  blessed 
vermicelli,"  grumbled  my  friend  several  times  dur- 
ing the  night  when  colic  seized  him,  and  I  thanked 
Providence  that  I  had  taken  scarcely  half  the  quan- 
tity of  the  soup  in  which  he  had  indulged.  On  the 
next  day  he  felt  worse,  symptoms  of  dysentery  soon 
manifested  themselves,  and  he  had  to  be  carried  to 
France.  Fully  two  months  later  I  called  upon  ray 
unlucky  companion  at  Biarritz,  and  found  him  still  in 
bed.  "  It  is  still  that  sacre  vermicelle^'*  exclaimed  he, 
on  seeing  me ;  "  but,  thank  God,  I  am  getting  better 
now ! " * 

On  another  excursion  of  the  same  sort,  a  Spanish 
friend  and  myself  were  on  the  lookout  for  a  fowl. 
There  was  in  the  whole  village  but  one  house  in 
possession  of  a  few  of  them,  and  an  old  paralyzed 
woman,  the  landlady,  and  apparently  the  only  in- 
habitant of  the  house,  at  first  refused  to  part  with 
one  of  them.  But  as  we  increased,  step  by  step,  our 
offer  from  two  to  five  francs,  she  ultimately  consented 
to  let  us  have  one  upon  the  understanding  that  we 
should  catch  it  ourselves,  as  she  was  unable  to  move. 

*  Provisions  of  a  conservable  nature  were  not  only  fre- 
quently very  bad,  but  were  sometimes  ascertained  to  have  been 
purposely  poisoned.  Such  was,  at  all  events,  the  case  with 
some  cigars  manufactured  at  Vitoria  and  Pamplona,  and  sent 
out  to  the  Carlist  camps. 


224  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

And  if  we  had  needed  any  proof  that  acts  apparently 
most  simple  require  experience,  we  could  not  have  had 
a  better  lesson  than  the  catching  of  that  fowl.  The 
five  or  six  clucking  bipeds,  which  were  perambulating 
and  flying  about  the  vast  desolate  barn,  made  us  rush 
about,  dodging  and  cursing  them  for  nearly  an  hour 
without  being  able  to  catch  any  of  them,  till  at  last  my 
companion  took  out  his  revolver,  and  resolved  to  solve 
the  problem  by  a  shot.  Unhappily,  instead  of  killing 
a  hen  he  brought  down  the  cock,  and  —  a  still  greater 
misfortune  —  the  bullet  finished  its  career  by  lodging 
itself  in  the  leg  of  an  old  pig  domiciled  in  the  same 
barn.  The  result  of  this  little  sport  was  an  endless 
explanation  with  the  old  woman,  the  alcalde,  and  half 
of  the  villagers,  and  a  disbursement  of  a  rather  round 
sum  for  the  wounded  pig,  which  was  immediately 
transformed  into  Carlist  rations.  But  justice  requires 
me  to  add  that  we  were  presented  with  a  larger  quantity 
of  that  useful  animal  than  we  could  ever  consume,  and 
that  the  roasted  cock  —  whose  death  the  old  landlady 
lamented  more  than  that  of  the  pig  —  travelled  with 
us^for  several  days,  being  much  too  hard  to  be  disposed 
of  at  one  meal. 

Such  and  similar  episodes  were  almost  of  daily 
occurrence,  and  the  whole  of  our  life  in  the  Campo 
del  Honor,  with  its  eccentric  adventures,  its  various 
encounters  with  strange  characteis  in  the  most  astound- 
ing costumes,  and  its  serio  comic  background  of  reli- 
gious crusades,  and  daily  masses  celebrated  by  priests 
in  top-boots  and  spurs,  had  something  about  it  which 
reminded  one  immensely  of  Offenbach's  and  Herve's 
operas.     In  fact,  when  Don   Carlos  and  his  generals 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  225 

were  not  present,  we  —  the  foreigners  and  the  Frenchi- 
fied Spanish  officers  —  used  to  salute  each  other  with 
the  well-known  chorus  of  "  Little  Faust :  "  — 

"  Vaillants  guerriers,  sur  laterre  etrangere, 
Combattre  est  un  plaisir ! 
Lcs  ennerais  y  mordront  la  poussiere, 
Et  9a  les  f 'ra  mourir!  " 

Occasionally,  indeed,  it  seemed  to  me,  from  a  good 
many  analogies,  as  if  this  chant  had  been  specially 
written  for  us  ;  and,  as  if  to  complete  the  joke,  it 
turned  out  that  the  popular  song  of  the  two  gendarmes 
in  "Genevieve  de  Brabant"  was  sung  by  every  volun- 
teer in  the  force,  it  being  —  so  I  was  told  —  a  national 
melody  of  Gaipuzcoa,  Maestro  Offenbach  having 
apparently  borrowed  it,  changing  only  the  few  last 
bars  corresponding  to  the  words,  '^  Well  run  'em  in." 

Even  the  royal  household  itself  did  not  present  an 
aspect  of  much  solemnity  or  seriousness.  Though  it 
comprised  a  bishop,  a  military  secretary  to  the  king, 
two  chamberlains,  a  dozen  orderly  officers,  and  a  num- 
ber of  old  generals,  all  of  them,  including  the  king 
himself;  were  too  frequently  seen  in  deshabille  to  pre- 
serve, even  in  the  eyes  of  Spanish  loyalists,  the 
prestige  they  might  have  otherwise  secured.  Truly 
speaking,  the  majority  of  staff-officers  disliked  to  follow 
Don  Carlos,  for  they  were  much  better  lodged,  and  had 
more  opportunities  of  procuring  provisions  when  they 
were  following  some  less  brilliant  detachment.  It 
frequently  happened  during  our  marches,  that,  for  the 
sake  of  placing  the  Pretender  in  a  position  of  safety, 
our  headquarters  were  established  somewhere  on  the 
15 


226  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

top  of  a  mountain,  in  a  village  consisting,  perhaps,  of 
only  a  couple  of  dozen  bouses,  in  which  accommoda- 
tion had  to  be  found  for  a  staff  of  some  fifty  or  sixty 
persons,  with  several  horses  each,  and  two  or  three 
thousand  rank  and  file.  And  as  Don  Carlos  is  a  man 
who  does  not  particularly  interest  himself  in  tlie  com- 
fort of  others,  provided  his  own  wants  are  attended  to, 
the  members  of  the  staff  had  frequently  to  content 
themselves  with  accommodation  at  the  best  only  fit  for 
pigs.  Yet  it  must  be  admitted  at  the  same  time,  that 
the  Pretender's  own  comfort  was  not  always  of  a  high 
class.  I  frequently  found,  when  calling  on  him,  that  he 
had  to  sleep  on  the  floor  on  account  of  the  chinches 
(an  annoying  insect  known  to  the  Margate  lodging- 
house  keepers,  under  the  musical  demomination  of  B 
flat).  Nor  was  his  table  always  luxuriantly  supplied, 
for.  except  in  large  towns,  where  a  wealthy  cure,  a  mer- 
chant, or  landed  proprietor  offered  Ids  hospitality,  it 
was  conducted  on  the  mess  principle.  The  members 
of  the  royal  household  had  their  usual  ofiicers'  rations  * 

*  Cariist  rations  consisted  of  one  and  a  half  pounds  of  bread, 
three  quarters  of  a  pound  of  meat,  and  a  pint  of  wine.  Officers 
of  all  ranks  received  double  rations,  and  a  quantity  (very- 
insufficient)  of  grain  for  one  horse.  The  officers'  allowance 
was  also  granted  to  newspaper  correspondents,  who  would  have 
starved  otherwise ;  but  of  course  they  had  to  pay  for  their 
rations.  Here  is  a  copy  of  a  pass  and  ration  order,  which  I 
still  preserve  as  a  souvenir  of  my  past  tribulations  :  — 

"  Secretaria  de  Campana  de  S.   M. 

"  Permitase  circular  libremente  en  el  territorio  ocupado  por 

las  fuerzas  del  Key  N.  S.  al  S""  D"^  N.  L.  T ,  corresponsal 

especial  del  '  Heraldo  de  Nueva  York,'  facilitandale  las  autori- 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  227 

served  out  to  them,  Don  Carlos'  cook  and  the  posen- 
tadoi\  or  quarter-master,  who  were  always  sent  on  in 
advance,  securing  what  additional  provisions  could  be 
found.  But,  in  many  cases,  the  resources  of  the  villages 
were  so  poor  that  not  much  could  be  obtained  even  for 
El  Rey,  Nuestro  Seiior.  Don  Carlos,  however,  very 
frequently  enjoyed  preserves  and  pastry,  which  were 
amply  supplied  to  him  from  the  nunneries  we  had  to 
pass,  and  which  he  was  most  generous  in  sharing  with 
the  staff  attaches.  Justice  requires  me  to  state  here 
that  the  amiable  Spanish  nuns  excel  in  these  prepara- 
tions, and  more  especially  in  the  confection  of  a  kind 
of  thick  quince  marmalade,  which  excels  in  dehcacy 
anything  I  have  ever  tasted  before. 


In  a  life  of  this  sort,  entertainment  or  change  is 
seldom  looked  for,  as  every  hour  is  a  change  in  some 
way,  and  every  minute  is  entertainment,  though  by  no 
means  always  of  a  pleasant  nature.  But  even  those 
who  might  have  looked  for  entertainment  in  the  usual 
sense  of  the  word,  could  not  feel  disappointed.  In  the 
first  place,  if  battles  were  not  to  be  witnessed   every 

dades  alojamiento  y  racionea  que  el  S*"  D°  N.  L.  T satis- 

fara  al  precio  de  contrata. 

"  Cuartel  Real  de  Zubiri.    Doce  de  Agosto  de  1873. 
«<  El  Brigadier,  Secretario  de  S.  M. 

*'  I.   DE  IpARRAGUIRRE." 

Stamp  of  the  Real 

Junta  Gubernativa 

del  Reyno  de 

Navarra. 


228  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS, 

day,  skirmishes  were  never  wanting,  and  one  could 
always,  if  he  felt  disposed,  get  up  a  little  expedition  on 
his  own  account.  One  of  Elio's  aides-de-camp  and 
nephews.  Captain  Tristan  Barraute,  frequently  made  an 
opportunity  for  some  such  pastime  when  he  began  to  feel 
dull  at  headquarters.  On  one  occasion  he  crossed  the 
Ebro,  and  pushed  towards  Lograno  with  a  handful  of 
crack  infantry  and  cavalry,  equally  smart  in  attack  and 
in  flight;  and  the  dash  with  which  they  crossed  the  river 
was  equalled  only  by  the  celerity  with  which  they  re- 
crossed  it  on  the  next  day.  Very  frequently  that  gallant 
ofiicer  disappeared  from  headquarters,  no  one  knowing 
whither  he  had  gone,  and  in  a  few  days  it  would  turn 
out  that  he  had  had  news  of  an  enemy's  column  about 
to  pass  through  some  gorge,  where  he  at  once  pro- 
ceed'ed  to  arrest  its  progress.  Two  mounted  men, 
armed,  like  himself,  with  sixteen  shot  carabines,  which 
he  kept  for  this  special  purpose,  were  quite  enough  for 
him.  They  would  start  at  night,  gallop  like  madmen 
to  the  top  of  some  rocky  hill,  where  they  place  them- 
selves in  ambuscade,  and  open  a  "deadly"  fire,  at 
daybreak,  on  the  approaching  column.  The  enemy, 
bewildered  at  the  unexpected  encounter,  not  knowing 
the  strength  of  the  concealed  force,  and  having  lost 
several  men,  frequently  retraced  his  steps,  while  Don 
Tristan  would  then  return  to  headquarters,  and  after 
reporting  to  his  uncle  the  strength  of  the  column, 
describe  to  his  friend  the  enjoyment  he  had  had  on 
his  sporting  expedition. 

There  was  also  no  lack  of  musical  entertainments, 
as  there  are  several  bands  in  the  Carlist  army,  and 
every  volunteer  sings  almost  all  day  long.     But  if  the 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR,  229 

music  of  the  bands  was  very  fair,  the  same  can  by  no 
means  be  said  of  the  vocal  part  of  the  daily  concerts. 
Basque,  and  especially  Navarre,  songs  and  singing  are 
something  to  which  it  is  terrible  to  listen.  In  the 
majority  of  cases  they  are  of  a  lamenting  character, 
and  both  in  composition  and  execution  are  incompara- 
bly worse  than  such  songs  as  "  We've  got  no  work  to 
do;"  while  the  Navarrese  throat  is  at  times  capable 
of  giving  utterance  to  sounds  so  hoarse  and  horrible 
as  to  baffle  all  attempts  at  description. 

Now  and  then,  however,  we  had  good  singing  too, 
though  it  seldom  came  from  the  rank  and  file,  as  it 
does  in  Italy.  The  best  things  I  have  heard  in  that 
way  were  serenades  which  ihe  staff  officers  gave  to 
Don  Carlos;  and  one  of  them  I  still  remember  as  about 
the  most  charming  to  which  it  has  ever  been  my  good 
fortune  to  listen.  It  was  at  Durango,  in  Biscaya.  We 
had  organized  a  large  dinner  party.  The  idea  of  giving 
a  dinner  party  sounds  strange  aniirlst  such  a  life  as  that 
we  were  then  leading;  but  with  the  Oarlists  a  dinner 
party  does  not  necessarily  mean  a  good  dinner.  The 
meal  on  that  occasion  was  the  best  that  the  landlady 
of  the  Fonda  Olmedal  could  provide,  and  it  was,  as 
usual,  shockingly  bad  ;  but  there  was  plenty  of  wine, 
and  still  more  good  fellowship. 

One  of  the  guests,  a  freshly-airived  Andalusian 
officer,  took  up  a  guitar  as  soon  as  the  coffi^e  was 
served,  and  for  more  than  two  hours  ballad  succeeded 
ballad,  triste  or  gay,  warlike  or  loving,  chatty  or  dreamy 
—  he  equally  excelled  in  all.  By  midnight,  every  one 
of  the  party  was  raised  to  the  highest  pitch  of  gayety, 
and   had    discovered    singing    capacities    in    himself 


230  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

Choruses  were  struck  up,  and  off  marched  the  com- 
pany to  the  town  square  in  which  Don  Carlos'  house 
w^as  situated.  A  popular  chant,  with  a  kind  of  thun- 
dering refrain^  "  Viva  el  Rey,"  awoke  everybody  in 
the  neighborhood.  Don  Carlos,  who  was  occupied 
with  some  of  his  generals,  came  out  on  the  balcony, 
and  the  windows  of  every  house  on  the  plaza  soon 
showed  a  numberless  array  of  human  beings  in  the 
most  varied  night  garments,  illumined  by  a  splendid 
moonshine.  In  a  few  minutes  every  one  of  these 
spectators  joined  in  the  chorus.  The  effect  of  this 
mass  of  voices  resounding  amidst  the  soft  calm  of  a 
southern  summer  night,  and  alternating  with  the  solo 
melody  and  the  guitar  notes  of  our  Andalusian  min- 
strel, really  baffles  all  attempts  at  description.  Don 
Carlos  seemed  so  charmed  that,  anxious  to  prolong  the 
pleasure  as  long  as  he  could,  he  allowed  a  considerable 
time  to  pass  before  he  sent  the  serenaders  the  usual 
invitation,  to  step  up  to  his  house,  where  liqueurs, 
sweets,  and  cigars  were  prepared  for  them,  and  the 
whole  of  the  royal  household  assembled.  As  there 
w^as  a  piano  in  the  drawing-room,  and  one  of  the 
chamberlains  appeared  to  be  an  excellent  musician, 
not  only  w^as  the  singing  continued,  but  dancing  was 
added  to  it,  and  it  was  not  without  interest  to  see  that 
the  palm  for  national  Spanish  dancing  was  on  that 
night  carried  off  by  an  Englishman.  A  stout,  power- 
ful man,  of  fully  forty  years  of  age,  my  worthy  colleague 
of  the  Illustrated  London  News,  had  succeeded  in 
mastering  the  fandango  as  lew  Spaniards  ever  did. 
This  was,  however,  not  the  only  point  which  rendered 
him  quite  a  notoriiety  among  the  Carlists.     As  soon  as 


CAMPO  DEL   HONOR,  231 

he  arrived  in  their  camp,  he  entered  so  thoroughly 
into  their  ways  and  manners  as  to  dress,  live,  and 
march  like  the  common  volunteers.  He  was  frequently 
to  be  seen  on  foot,  marching  with  the  columns,  in 
hempen  sandals,  Carlist  cap,  and  a  red  woollen  scarf, 
worn  as  a  waist-band  {faja).  Twenty  and  thirty  miles 
a  day,  under  a  burning  sun,  were  nothing  to  him,  and 
garlic  and  rancid-  oil  seemed  to  have  become  his  great- 
est luxuries.  His  natural  serenity  never  abandoned 
him  in  the  midst  of  all  these  fatigues  and  privatrons, 
except,  perhaps,  when  he  was  disturbed  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  a  sound  sleep  by  the  constant  ringing  of  the 
church  bells.  His  invariable  remark,  on  being  awa- 
kened on  such  occasions,  was,  "  I  wish  peoj^le  were 
not  so  d — d  religious  in  this  country." 

Sometimes  we  had  also  entertainments  of  a  some- 
what different  nature,  as,  for  instance,  a  wholesale  com- 
munion of  the  Carlist  army  at  the  Convent  of  Loyola. 
A  visit  to  the  Casa  Solar,  where  the  founder  of  the 
Jesuits  was  born,  and  to  the  splendid  cathedral  which 
has  been  built  on  the  spot,  is  by  itself  hiteresting.  To 
see  the  old  Marquis  Yaldespina  rushing  about  the  con- 
vent to  show  every  one  the  place  where  himself  and  a 
few  other  Carlist  leaders  were  educated,  the  dormitory 
they  slept  in,  the  garden  in  which  they  took  their 
recreation,  and  the  room  where  they  were  punished 
by  the  holy  brothers  of  the  Order  of  Jesus,  is  very 
curious.  But  to  witness  battalion  after  battalion, 
headed  by  a  numerous  staff,  kneeling  down  to  partake 
of  the  Holy  Sacrament,  is  a  sight  to  which  the  spec- 
tator's conviction  of  the  profound  religious  devotion 
with  which  every  one  of  these  men  was  animated, 
gives  a  touch  of  real  solemnity. 


232  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

Now  and  then  we  had  also  festivities  like  those  by 
which  the  arrival  in  camp  of  Don  Jnan,  father  of  the 
Pretender,  and  of  Don  Alphonso  and  Dona  Maria  de 
las  Nieves,  was  celebrated.  The  reception  of  Don 
Carlos'  father,  who  has  the  reputation  of  being  an  old 
Liberal,  could  not,  of  course,  be  compared  for  heartiness 
with  the  welcome  given  to  the  brother  of  the  Pre- 
tender, and  especially  to  his  sister-in-law.  And  sure  it 
is  that  Dona  Maria,  who  has  shared  for  nearly  two 
years  her  husband's  camp  life  in  Catalonia,  has  fully 
earned  the  rather  violent  demonstrations  of  sympathy 
with  which  she  was  greeted  on  her  arrival  at  Estella. 
How  far  her  campaigning  in  the  mountains  is  advan- 
tageous or  desirable,  is  another  question.  But  the  fict 
that  the  princess  has  shared  all  the  hardships  of  her 
husband,  in  winter  as  in  summer,  and  that  even  in  the 
most  critical  moments  she  was  alwnys  cheering  and 
encouraging  the  volunteers  by  a  smile  or  a  kind  word, 
was  quite  enough  to  render  her  the  idol  of  every  Carlist, 
young  or  old,  soldier  or  general.  By  her  appearance 
alone  she  would  pioduce  a  sensation  in  any  large  pop- 
ular gathering.  About  twenty-one  years  of  age,  a  ftiir 
little  blonde  with  slightly  curled  hair,  dressed  in  a  kind 
of  hussar  blue  and  b'ack  riding  habit,  tiimmed  with 
fur,  and  a  gold  tnsselled  white  Carlist  cap,  which  she 
coquettishly  wears  on  one  side  —  she  looked  on  her 
coal-black  charger  like  one  of  those  little  fancy  ama- 
zons  printed  on  sweatmeat-boxes.  And  the  sight  of  a 
little  picture  of  that  soit  riding  out  of  its  frame  into 
real  life  is  of  a  nature  to  make  any  one  stop  to  look  at 
it.  So  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  not  only  the 
Carlist  volunteers,  but  all  the  inhabitants  of  Estella  and 


CAMPO  DEL   HONOR.  233 

its  neighborhood,  poured  out  en  masse  on  the  road  to 
Abarzuza  to  meet  the  princess  and  prince,  whose  pres- 
ence at  the  RoyaHst  headquarters  was  for  two  or  three 
days  the  cause  of  the  wildest  excitement.  Masses, 
music,  dancing,  fireworks,  did  not  cease  until  every- 
body was  perfectly  exhausted.  Yet  what  seemed  on 
all  such  occasions  really  quite  surprising  to  any  man 
with  British  notions  of  popular  festivities,  was  the 
unnatural  absence  of  policemen,  drunken  people,  and 
fights.  This  peculiarity  did  not  even  escape  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Times  correspondent,  who,  describing  simi- 
lar rejoicings,  which  took  place  on  the  occasion  of  the 
Carlist  victory  at  Dicastillo,  wrote  on  the  28th  of 
August  to  his  journal, — 

"  Our  last  day  at  Estella  was  a  gala  one  for  the  in- 
habitants. Carlist  bands  played  national  tunes  in  the 
squares  until  a  late  hour,  fireworks  wefe  let  off  in  honor 
of  the  occasion,  and  every  available  spot  was  occupied 
by  hundreds  of  men  and  women,  slowly  gyrating  to 
provincial  airs,  Jo^as,  and  other  popular  Basque  dances. 
A  very  good-humored  crowd  it  was,  too.  Nowhere 
could  I  hear  any  sounds  of  discord  ;  and,  notwithstand- 
ing the  unlimited  supply  of  wine  freely  lavished  by  the 
good  folks  of  Dicastillo  on  the  soldiery,  not  a  symptom 
of  drunkenness  displayed  itself." 

Another  kind  of  amusement  at  the  Campo  del  Honor 
consisted  in  the  opening  of  the  mails  —  not  of  ours,  of 
course,  for  we  had  never  any  regular  communication 
with  the  outer  world,  but  of  those  of  the  Republicans. 
To  capture  these  mails  and  forward  them  to  the  Carlist 
headquarters  was  the  duty  of  flying  parties.  Some- 
times two  or  three  large  trunks  were  seized  on  their 


234  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

way  to  Pamplona  or  France,  and  while  the  official  cor- 
respondence was  gone  through  by  some  of  the  generals, 
the  private  letters  were  distributed  among  the  officers 
of  the  staffi  The  reading  of  these  missives  on  a  long, 
tiresome  march  was  quite  a  treat  in  its  way ;  some  of 
the  letters  being  so  comical  as  to  raise  roars  of  laughter 
as  they  passed  from  hand  to  hand  through  the  whole 
of  the  staff.  As  a  matter  of  course,  the  Carlists  had 
frequently  to  read  very  unpleasant  things  about  them- 
selves. Military  communications  forwarded  by  the 
government  of  Madrid,  for  safety's  sake,  in  ladies'  hand- 
writing and  in  fashionable  little  envelopes,  were  also 
often  discovered. 

Sometimes  gentlemen  on  the  staff  received  in  that 
way  tradesmen's  bills,  whicli,  having  been  sent  for 
payment  to  their  residences  at  Madrid,  were  thence 
forwarded  to  iJayonne,  and  captured  on  their  wfly. 
The  handing  of  such  bills  to  their  proper  recipient 
was  always  a  treat  to  the  whole  company,  wdio  were 
intensely  amused  at  the  bewildered  look  with  which 
the  bill-running  officers  contemplated  the  trick  which 
fate  had  played  on  them.  More  than  once,  I  believe, 
the  secrets  of  ladies,  fnends  and*  relatives  of  one  or 
other  of  the  officers,  were  thus  disclosed  to  the  very 
persons  from  whom  the  ladies  were  probably  most 
anxious  to  conceal  them.  Traces  of  such  reading 
entertainments  were  always  to  be  seen  for  several 
days  on  the  road  we  passed,  by  the  bits  of  torn  papers 
scattered  along  the  ground  for  two  or  three  miles. 

The  staff  and  suite  of  Don  Carlos  was  the  most 
motley  and  peculiar  assemblage  that  could  possibly  be 
imagined.     Not  only  was  the  variety  of  costumes  and 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR,  235 

faces  perfectly  bewildering,  but  the  extent  to  which 
foreign  countries  were  represented  in  this  purely  local 
Spanish  struggle  was  amazing.  Every  European  country 
Lad  several  representatives  fighting  for  the  defence  of 
Spanish  Legitimacy.  The  United  States,  too,  had  at  dif- 
ferent times  at  least  half  a  dozen  of  their  citizens  in  the 
Carlist  ranks.  What  sort  of  interest  all  these  stran- 
gers could  possibly  have  felt  in  supporting  Don  Carlos, 
no  one  was  ever  able  to  explain,  except  on  the  hypoth- 
esis of  their  having  almost  all  been  petty  military 
adventurers.  As  a  matter  of  course,  I  exclude  from 
these  my  confreres^  the  journalists,  who  were  present 
independent  of  their  own  wish,  and  all  those  whom  I 
have  to  mention  here  by  name. 

The  most  promising  body  of  foreigners,  who  entered 
the  service  of  Don  Carlos,  seemed  Undoubtedly  to  be 
the  already-mentioned  squadron  of  Paris  cavalry ;  but 
unhappily  it  lived  but  the  short  life  of  a  rose.  It  made 
its  brilliant  appearance  towards  the  beginning  of  June, 
and  in  a  month's  time  nothing  more  was  to  be  seen  of 
it,  and  what  was  to  be  heard  was  not  pleasant  to  listen 
to.  Count  d'Alcantara  became  ill,  and  had  to  go  back 
to  France,  while  the  majority  of  his  officers  discovered, 
it  seems,  at  the  battle  of  Udave  (Lecumberry)  that  to 
take  actual  part  in  Carlist  fighting  was  not  a  particu- 
larly jolly  pastime.  In  fact.  Count  d'Alcantara  and 
Baron  Barbier  were  the  only  two  officers  of  the  little 
squadron  that  went  bravely  into  fire  on  that  occasion, 
the  remainder  having  retired  to  the  village  in  the 
rear  of  the  force,  and  retreated  to  France  the  very  next 
day.  The  brilliant  escort  came  thus  to  grief  before 
Don  Carlos  had  ever  seen  it,  and  the  horses,  saddles, 


236  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

and  the  rest  of  its  splendid  equipment  were  sold  by 
retail  to  the  highest  bidder. 

The  Germans  were  less  numerously  but  more  hap- 
pily and  much  more  romantically  represented  in  the 
Carlist  army.  An  Austrian  and  a  Prussian  officer, 
whom  I  knew  there,  were  amongst  the  most  valiant 
men.  They  managed  also  to  pick  up  Spanish  very 
promptly,  and  to  make  friends  with  everybody.  The 
Prussian,  a  lieutenant  in  the  German  army,  had  had  a 
duel  with  his  captain,  shot  him  dead,  and  was  to  have 
been  judged  by  a  court-martial.  To  escape  this,  he 
went  into  Spain,  entered  the  ranks  of  the  Carlists,  and 
when  I  last  saw  him  he  was  on  the  point  of  being  made 
aide-de-camp  to  Lizarraga.  The  Austrian  was  a  mem- 
ber of  a  very  high  and  wealthy  lamily,  and  had  been 
connected  for  years  with  the  diplomatic  service.  He 
had  been  secretary  to  the  embassy  in  Paris,  and  foi- 
some  time,  I  believe,  charg6  cVaffaires  in  Portugal. 
He  seems  to  have  fallen  into  a  love  affiiir  which  did 
not  quite  answer  his  wishes,  and  took  to  Carlism  out 
of  despair.  With  plenty  of  money  at  his  command, 
and  with  no  end  of  courage,  that  tiuin  became  at  once 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  Carlist  officers.  At 
Eraoul,  at  XJdave,  at  Ciiauqui,  at  Dicastillo,  he  w^as 
always  in  the  hottest  of  tiie  fight;  and  the  rank  of 
major,  the  star  of  the  order  of  "Military  Merit,"  and 
the  position  of  orflnance  officer  to  tlie  king  were  the 
rewards  bestowed  upon  him.  Wlien  T  hist  saw  liim  at 
Durango,  he  spoke  Spanish  like  a  Spaniard,  and  every 
one  of  the  volunteers,  none  of  whom  would  even  at- 
tempt to  pronounce  the  name  of  Baron  Karl  Von 
Walterskirchen,  and  who  seldom  cared  to  know  the 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR,  237 

name  of  even  their  own  officers,  knew  perfectly  well, 
and  were  always  anxious  to  salute,  "Don  Carlos,  el 
Austriaco.'' 

The  AnGjlo-Saxon  and  the  Celtic  races  were  almost 
as  numerously  represented  as  the  Gauls.  Not  to  speak 
of  the  gentlemen  connected  with  the  CarHst  Commit- 
tee of  London,  the  various  other  bodies  of  Irish  and 
English  Catholics  which  were  working  at  home  for  the 
cause  of  Don  Carlos  at  the  risk  of  legal  prosecution, 
and  those  gentlemen  who,  on  board  the  Deerhound 
and  other  vessels,  exposed  themselves  to  be  captured 
and  dealt  with  as  pirates,  England,  and  especially  Ire- 
land, have,  from  the  very  outbreak  of  the  movement, 
suppHed  the  Carlist  army  with  a  number  of  gentlemen 
anxious  to  get  a  bit  of  fighting,  and  to  win  some  mili- 
tary rank  or  order  they  had  no  chance  of  obtaining  in 
their  own  country.  Some  of  them  had  already  tried  to 
do  so  in  the  Papal  army  and  in  the  French  army.  They 
came,  as  a  rule,  with  more  or  less  considerable  preten- 
sions; and  as  none  of  them  knew  the  language  of  the 
country,  and  but  few  had  sufficient  means  to  purchase 
a  horse  or  equipment,  I  do  not  believe  they  had  any 
great  success  in  Spain.  One  of  these  gentlemen,  how- 
ever, left  an  excellent  name  behind  him.  Mr.  John 
Scannel  Taylor  (an  Irish  law-student,  I  believe)  en- 
tered a  battalion  as  a  private,  never  asked  for  any 
favor,  and  was  the  first  to  fall  under  the  walls  of  Fort 
Ibero,  near  Pamplona.  It  was  the  first  and  last  action 
that  young  gentleman  ever  took  part  in. 

America  had  at  my  time  several  representatives  in  the 
Spanish  camp.  Among  them  was  Colonel  Butler,  the 
late  United  States  consul-general  in  Egypt,  and  his 


288  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

secretary,  Mnjor  Wadleigh.  They  were  both  attached, 
in  the  capacity  of  military  amateurs,  to  the  staff  of 
Dorregaray,  and  stood  a  good  deal  of  fire  at  the  battle 
of  Eraoul.  At  Peiiacerrada  they  narrowly  escaped 
being  captured  by  Republicans  when  the  Carlist  forces 
were  surprised,  lost  every  bit  of  their  luggage,  but  did 
not  seem  to  be  discouraged  by  their  first  experiment, 
and  went  home,  promising  soon  to  return  again.  Sev- 
eral young  American  doctors  came  to  Bayonne,  and 
were  trying  to  join  the  army;  but  the  knowledge  of 
Spanish  being  quite  indispensable  to  a  surgeon,  and 
the  Carlist  medical  arrangements  being  so  poor  that 
the  surgeons  were  not  able  to  obtain  the  barest  requi- 
sites of  an  ambulance  service,  the  doctors  did  not  seem 
disposed  to  cross  the  frontier.  The  nephew  of  a  well- 
known  South  American  general  (a  smart  and  military- 
looking  young  gentleman)  was  also  about  to  enter  the 
ranks  of  the  Carlists  at  the  time  I  left  Spain,  and  —  let 
us  hope  —  will  have  fared  better  than  the  majority  of 
foreigners. 

Italy  sent,  as  far  as  I  know,  two  persons  —  a  captain 
of  engineers,  who  was  doing  some  actual  service  with 
the  Navarre  battalions,  and  a  priest  (supposed  to  be  a 
Jesuit  father),  one  of  the  most  curious  specimens  of 
priesthood  I  ever  met  with.  He  spoke  very  bad  Ital- 
ian and  quite  unintelligible  French,  a  mixture  of  which 
imperfectly-spoken  languages  with  some  Latin  —  which 
I  suppose  must  have  been  better —  was  intended  to  do 
service  as  Spanish.  No  one  knew  where  he  came  from, 
and  what  he  came  for.  He  was  attached  to  no  military 
body  or  person,  constantly  changed  his  abode,  and  had 
consequently  no  regular  corps  to  draw  his  rations  from. 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  239 

Of  money  he  had,  apparently,  none  at  all,  and  lived 
upon  anything  he  could  find.  But,  wherever  there  was 
fire,  the  father  was  sure  to  be  in  the  field  with  a  gigantic 
silver  crucifix  in  his  hands,  administering  the  last  con- 
solations to  the  wounded,  some  of  whom  I  am  perfectly 
sure  he  frightened  to  death  by  the  abrupt  and  hurried 
way  in  which  he  jumped  at  them  with  the  heavy  cru- 
cifix in  his  hands.  One  of  the  wounded  actually  com- 
plained to  me  that  the  black  eye  the  worthy  priest  had 
given  him  with  the  crucifix  was  much  more  painful  than 
the  wound  caused  by  the  enemy's  bullet  entering  his 
calf.  The  behavior  of  the  reverend  father  on  the  bat- 
tle-field, his  attire,  which  was  by  no  means  attractive 
or  clean,  and  the  general  mystery  as  to  his  personality, 
made  him  soon  known  everywhere,  and  the  kindness 
of  the  various  ofi[icers  in  inviting  him  to  share  their 
meals  more  than  once,  I  believe,  saved  him  from  the 
danger  of  starvation.  On  learning  one  day  that  I  was 
a  newspaper  correspondent,  the  worthy  priest  got  hold 
of  me,  saying  that,  being  very  well  acquainted  with 
everything  concerning  Carlism,  he  was  anxious  to  phice 
in  my  hands  some  notes  he  had,  and  that,  although  he 
knew  my  journal  was  published  in  the  English  lan- 
guage, he  thought  I  could  easily  translate  them  from 
the  Latin,  the  language  in  which  he  preferred  to  write. 
As  such  exercises  in  translation  frightened  me  very 
much,  I  thanked  him  ofi'-hand,  saying  that  I  thought 
my  position  as  a  mere  looker-on  much  better  fitted  tor 
the  observation  of  facts  and  details,  and  that  his  inces- 
sant and  beneficial  activity  would  make  it  very  difticult 
for  me  to  get  these  notes  from  him  in  proper  time  for 
the  couriers. 


240  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

"But,"  retorted  the  mysterious  father,  "that  is  ex- 
actly what  I  want  to  keep  you  aloof  from  —  the  com- 
munication of  what  is  called  news.  I  want  you  to 
speak  of  those  eternal  truths  and  principles  to  which 
so  little  attention  is  paid  nowadays,  and  which  it 
should  be  the  duty  of  every  honest  paper  to  revive 
amongst  the  erring  masses  of  tlie  people." 

I  need  not  say  that,  after  a  suggestion  of  this  sort,  I 
did  my  best  to  avoid  meeting  the  reverend  gentleman 
again ;  and  as  the  Carlist  forces  soon  after  divided  into 
three  distinct  corps,  operating  in  different  i^rovinces, 
my  object  was  very  easily  attained. 

The  foreign  journalists  were,  almost  exclusive!}^, 
all  representatives  of  English  and  American  papers: 
Times,  Standard,  Daily  News,  New  York  World,  Il- 
lustrated London  News.  The  Paris  Figaro  liad  sent 
out  M.  Farcy,  but  lie  remained  only  a  short  time  in  the 
camp,  and  returned  to  Paris.  As  to  my  English  col- 
leagues, they  fared  as  they  always  do  in  such  cases  — 
that  is  to  say,  worked  much  harder  than  soldiers;  for 
they  underwent  the  same  privations,  and  exposed  them- 
selves to  the  same  danger  during  the  day,  and  wrote  at 
night,  wiien  soldiers  were  at  rest.  For  some  months  I 
was  quite  alone  with  the  Carlists,  ihe  English  papers 
not  having  "gone  in"  yet  for  Carlism,  and  for  all  that 
lime  I  was  more  or  less  exposed  to  "inspiriitioiis"  on 
the  part  of  the  Carlist  leaders.  They  all  wanted  to 
explain  to  me,  as  they  said,  the  philosophical  and  polit- 
ical importance  of  the  movement.  Some  of  the  cures 
were  particularly  zealous  in  that  way,  and  a  good  many 
of  them  did  not  much  differ  from  my  Italian  fiiend, 
except  that  they  talked  in  intelligible  Spanish,  and  did 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  241 

not  propose  to  favor  me  with  any  Latin  notes  to  trans- 
late. But  when  Don  Carlos  had  crossed  the  frontier, 
several  more  correspondents  arrived,  and  the  burden 
of  those  Carlist  "inspirations,"  which  I  had  previously 
to  bear  alone,  was,  of  course,  henceforth  divided  be- 
tween us.  The  London  Times  representative,  whoso 
sympathies  the  Carlists  were  particularly  anxious  to 
secure,  was  naturally  the  most  courted  man,  and  there 
was  no  sort  of  compliment  that  Don  Carlos  and  his 
generals  did  not  pay  to  the  correspondent  of  the  lead- 
ing English  journal,  in  the  vain  hope  to  make  him  and 
his  paper  serve  their  cause.  The  arrival  of  that  gen- 
tleman produced  quite  a  sensation  in  the  Carlist  camp. 
He  came  with  several  horses  and  a  couple  of  English 
servants.  That  was  already  something  to  astonish  the 
Carlists.  But  the  pink  envelopes,  with  the  printed 
address  of  the  Times  on  them,  produced  a  still  stronger 
impression  upon  Don  Carlos,  when  one  of  that  jour- 
nal's letters  happened  to  be  handed  to  him  for  the  pur- 
pose of  sending  it  over  to  France  with  his  courier.  It 
seemed  as  if  the  pink  envelope,  containing  the  record 
of  his  deeds,  made  him  appear  greater  in  his  own  eyes. 
By  and  by,  however,  as  the  campaign  went  on,  and 
the  Carlists  got  accustomed  to  the  presence  of  the 
*■  gentlemen  of  the  press,"  much  less  fuss  was  made 
about  us.  In  fact,  the  Carlist  chiefs  began  to  take  so 
little  notice  of  us  as  to  leave  us  sometimes  without  a 
shelter  at  night.  But  during  the  whole  time  we  were 
present  in  their  corps,  none  of  us  had  the  slightest 
unpleasantness  or  difficulty  with  the  authorities,  the 
population,  or  the  volunteers.  And  this  strikingly 
contrasted  with  the  experiences  of  some  of  us  during  the 
16 


242  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS, 

Franco-German  war,  when  every  correspondent,  how- 
ever devoted  to  the  French  cause,  was  several  times 
locked  up  by  the  French  military  commanders,  and 
some  very  narrowly  escaped  being  shot. 


To  describe  the  leading  Spanish  supporters  of  Don 
Carlos  would  be  to  write  another  volume.  But  a  few 
portraits  will  give  an  idea  of  the  whole  lot,  and  seem 
suflSciently  original  to  warrant  the  allotment  of  space 
they  will  occupy.  We  have  already  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Don  Carlos  himself,  and  his  prime  minister  — 
old  Elio.  Next  to  them  in  importance  of  position 
stands  General  Don  Antonio  Dorregaray,  commander 
of  the  forces  in  the  Basque  provinces  and  Navarre.  In 
tlie  beginning  of  tlie  movement  he  had  some  real  busi- 
ness to  do,  and  seems  to  have  accomplished  a  pretty 
fair  amount  of  work;  but  the  farther  the  Carlist  move- 
ment progressed,  the  more  did  Dorregaray  lose  both 
prestige  and  power.  His  nickname  amongst  the  staff 
officers  became  "General  Boom,"  on  account  of  his 
fierce  appearance,  and  his  being  rather  fond  of  hanging 
about  the  balconies  with  such  ladies  as  could  be  found 
willing  to  have  a  chat  on  non-poHtical  matters.  As  the 
forces  of  each  of  the  provinces  increased,  the  various 
commanders  became  more  independent  in  their  action  ; 
they  often  received  orders  direct  from  Elio,  and  the 
post  of  Dorregaray  became  quite  a  sinecure.  In  fact, 
for  the  last  three  or  four  months  I  saw  him,  he  was 
doing  nothing  but  riding  with  his  staff  behind  Don 
Carlos,  and  looking  at  battles  and  skirmishes  from  a 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  243 

more  or  less  safe  point  of  view.  His  previous  career, 
however,  indicates  that  he  was  an  officer  of  some  merit. 
He  is  a  Navarre  man  by  origin,  but  he  was  born  in  Africa, 
and  enlisted  as  a  cadet  in  the  troops  of  Charles  Y.  at 
the  early  age  of  twelve.  In  1839,  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  Seven  Years'  War,  he  was  a  lieutenant,  and  passed, 
on  the  strength  of  the  Yergara  Convention,  into  the 
regular  army  of  Isabella.  He  was  a  colonel  during  the 
Morocco  campaign,  and  left  the  queen's  service  at  the 
time  of  her  fall.  In  the  spring  of  1872,  when  the  new 
Carlist  movement  first  began,  he  was  commanding 
some  bands  in  Yalencia,  and  the  beginning  of  1873 
was  appointed  commander  of  the  Basque  provinces 
and  Navarre.  He  is  a  rather  handsome  man,  and  his 
powerful  appearance,  his  full  beard,  carefully  parted  in 
the  middle,  and  his  left  arm  suspended  in  a  sling,  give 
him,  when  mounted  on  his  white  charger,  on  the  whole, 
a  very  martial  appearance.  As  the  general's  wound 
seemed  to  be  serious,  and  the  doctors  constantly  told 
him  that  the  arm  must  either  be  amputated  or  he  must 
submit  to  undergo  a  careful  medical  treatment,  Don 
Carlos  wrote  to  Dorregaray,  proposing  that  he  should 
take  leave  of  absence  for  the  benefit  of  his  health;  but 
he  did  not  seem  disposed  to  take  advantage  of  this 
permission,  generally  considered  as  a  suggestion  to 
retire  from  the  post  he  now  occupies. 

The  chief  of  Dorregaray's  staflT  is  the  Marquis  of 
Yaldespina,  one  of  the  most  charming  and  curious 
types  in  the  Carlist  army.  He  is  a  man  about  fifty- 
five,  deaf  as  a  post,  as  recklessly  brave  as  can  be  well 
imagined,  and  as  nervous  and  excitable  as  an  old  maid. 
He  is  to  be  seen  everywhere  in  the  war-councils,  as 


244  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS, 

well  as  on  the  battle-field;  and  when  he  happens  to 
have  no  command,  he  takes  a  gun  out  of  a  volunteer's 
hand,  and  rashes  on  at  the  head  of  a  charging  battal- 
ion, or,  brandishing  his  sabre,  dashes  at  the  head  of  a 
cavalry  charge,  as  he  did  at  Eraoul.  It  is  impossible 
to  speak  to  Valdespina  except  through  tlie  gutta-percha 
tube  which  is  invariably  hanging  around  his  neck;  and 
like  a  good  many  deaf  people,  he  thinks  everybody  else 
is  deal;  too,  and  is  constantly  shouting.  At  the  battle 
of  Dicastillo,  he  was  for  more  than  an  hour  under  a 
heavy  artillery  lire,  and  was  apparently  so  unconscious 
of  where  he  was,  that  he  exclaimed  to  his  aide-de- 
camp, "I  wonder  why  those  fools  of  Republicans  don't 
lire  at  us  I"  and  was  quite  surj^rised  when  the  aide-de- 
camp called  his  attention  to  the  exploded  shells  lying 
about.  In  private  life,  the  marquis  is  one  of  the  most 
amiable  and  charming  men,  and  is  every  inch  of  him  a 
true  Castilian  caballero. 

The  commander  of  the  districts  of  Navarre,  General 
Olio,  is  much  less  of  an  aristocrat,  and  before  the  out- 
break of  this  war  his  name  was  little  known  even 
among  Carlists,  except  through  his  having  married 
a  very  remarkable  woman,  the  widow  of  one  of  the 
heroes  of  the  Seven  Years'  War.  When  her  first  hus- 
band was  killed.  Dona  Ramona  never  ceased  to  serve 
the  Carlists,  and  Zumalacarregui  acknowledged  that  he 
owed  to  this  lady,  on  several  occasions,  his  life.  He 
was  once  on  the  point  of  being  captured  with  the 
whole  of  his  force,  when  Dona  Ramona  saved  him  by 
smuggling  several  thousand  flints  concealed  in  a  cart- 
load of  cabbage,  which  she  conveyed  from  Pamplona 
into  Zumalacarregui's  camp  disguised  as  a  mule-driver. 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  245 

By  this  dashing  act,  she  gave  the  Carlist  commander 
the  opportunity  of  defeating  the  enemy  instead  of  be- 
ing captured,  as  he  would  have  been  without  the  flints. 
On  another  occasion  she  entered  Pamplona  at  the  risk 
of  her  life,  and  carried  on  with  the  Christino  General 
Saarsfield  the  negotiation  for  the  surrender  of  the  town 
and  citadel  with  all  the  forces  and  ammunition  in  it. 
On  the  eve  of  the  day  when  the  surrender  was  to  have 
taken  place,  Saarsfield  was  dismissed,  and  this  was  the 
only  cause  —  say  the  Carlists  —  why  Pamplona  did  not 
become  their  capital. 

One  could  make  quite  a  three-volume  novel  out  of 
the  adventures  of  that  extraordinary  woman.  When 
the  Seven  Years'  War  was  over,  and  Dona  Ramona 
was  released  from  prison,  she  married  a  Senor  Zubiri, 
and  kept  a  hotel  at  Pamplona,  where  the  defeated  and 
banished  Carlists  always  found  a  refuge,  and  where  all 
the  petty  risings  were  organized  after  1840.  Her  sec- 
ond husband  does  not  appear  to  have  lived  long ;  at 
all  events  a  few  years  back  we  find  her  keeping  a  large 
ironmonger's  shop  in  the  same  town  of  Pamplona,  and 
married  to  Don  Nicolas  Olio,  the  present  commander 
of  Navarre.  Although  Dona  Ramona  worked  very 
hard,  she  does  not  seem  to  have  ever  made  a  fortune, 
perhaps  on  account  of  her  constantly  spending  money 
for  the  Carlist  cause.  At  all  events,  when  Don  Nicolas 
received  his  appointment  as  commander  of  the  districts 
of  Navarre,  he  was  in  Paris  on  a  visit  to  a  step-son  of 
his,  and  could  not  accept  the  post  for  want  of  the  small 
sum  necessary  for  the  journey  from  Paris  to  Bayonne. 
It  was  only  after  obtaining  from  a  friend  a  loan  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  francs  that  he  was  enabled  to  start 


246  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

for  the  frontier.  He  entered  Spain  on  the  17th  of  De- 
cember, with  Argonz,  Perula,  and  twenty-three  vol- 
unteers. They  disinterred  some  three  hundred  rifles 
which  had  been  concealed  somewhere  in  the  forest  at 
the  close  of  the  previous  year's  rising,  and  in  less  than 
ten  months  Gilo  managed  to  raise,  arm,  and  organize 
eight  battalions,  each  of  which,  whatever  may  be  said 
of  the  external  appearance  of  the  men  composing  it, 
consists  of  as  good  a  raw  fighting  material  as  any  gen- 
eral could  wish  to  possess. 

Since  the  time  of  his  entry  into  Spain,  Olio  has  not 
left  his  troops  for  a  single  hour,  not  even  when  the  news 
reached  him  that  his  wife  was  dying  in  a  small  village 
near  Pamplona.  He  is  always  at  work;  and  I  never 
saw  the  serious  serenity  of  his  demeanor  desert  him  for 
a  moment.  He  is  quite  destitute  of  that  agility  and  ver- 
bosity with  which  we  are  so  famiUar  in  Spaniards,  and  in 
character  very  much  resembles  General  Elio,  with  the 
advantage  that  he  is  some  twenty-five  years  younger. 
His  only  shortcoming  seems  to  be  that  he  has  a  little 
too  much  of  Navarrese  conceitedness,  which  often  pre- 
vents him  from  co-oj^erating  with  the  generals  com- 
manding in  other  provinces.  And  as  the  Navarre  volun- 
teers are  all  possessed  of  the  same  defect,  there  occur 
differences  between  the  various  corps,  which  give  some 
trouble  to  old  Elio,  and  seem  often  to  disconcert  his 
plans. 

General  Olio  has  under  his  orders  a  few  superior 
ofiicers  too  popular  in  the  Vasco-Navarre  provinces  not 
to  be  mentioned  here.  First  of  all,  there  is  the  inter- 
minable General  Argonz,  the  head  of  his  staff.  I  mean 
interminable  in  the  sense  of  length.     He  is  a  regular 


CAMPO  DEL   HONOR.  247 

telegraph-post.  It  is  almost  an  ocular  feat  to  raise  your 
eyes  to  the  man's  shoulders ;  and  when  you  have  ac- 
complished this  much,  you  find  that  it  is  only  to  see  a 
neck  to  which  there  is  apparently  again  no  end.  The 
general's  stature  strikes  you  all  the  more  because  he 
seems  to  have  a  fancy  for  little  aides-de-camp.  He  has 
two  of  them,  and  both  are  so  short  that  they  could  as 
easily  pass  under  him  as  the  Lilliputians  passed  under 
the  giant  Gulliver  in  the  familiar  tale.  Argonz  is  an 
invaluable  man  in  his  way.  He  knows  the  country 
better  than  any  one.  Even  the  smallest  mountain 
paths  are  indelibly  impressed  upon  his  mind,  and  he  is 
known  far  and  wide  under  the  nickname  of  the  "per- 
ambulating map."  Formerly,  during  the  Seven  Years' 
War,  he  is  said  to  have  been  very  brave,  but,  now  that 
he  is  getting  old,  he  rather  dislikes  to  be  under  fire,  and 
in  the  war-councils  advocates,  as  a  rule,  marches  and 
counter-marches  for  the  purpose  of  tiring,  rather  than 
fighting,  the  enemy.  But  in  cases  of  unexpected  re- 
treat or  attack,  there  is  no  man  like  him  to  direct  the 
troops,  especially  if  he  can  do  so  without  being  obliged 
to  expose  himself  too  much.  In  the  beginning  of  the 
outbreak,  when  Olio  had  but  a  few  hundred  badly- 
armed  men,  and  was  pursued  by  several  strong  col- 
umns of  the  Republicans,  he  would  probably  never 
have  escaped  if  he  had  not  had  Argonz  by  his  side. 
Next  to  him,  as  a  character,  stands  the  celebrated 
Perula,  the  commander  and  organizer  of  the  Carlist 
cavalry.  He  is  a  lawyer  by  profession,  and  was  never 
a  military  man  ;  but  he  looks  a  real  sahreur.  His  thick 
and  big  mustache,  and  his  fierce  general  aspect,  at 
once  suggest  the  idea  of  a  man  destined  to  lead  cavalry 


248  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS, 

charges;  and  I  believe  that  it  was  through  looking  at 
himself  in  the  mirror  that  he  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  such  was  his  true  vocation.  At  all  events,  nothing 
else  warranted  him  to  undertake  the  task  of  organizing 
the  Carlist  cavalry  when  he  first  came  across  with  Olio. 
In  a  coupleof  months  lie  had  nearly  a  thousand  mount- 
ed men.  Where  he  got  the  horses,  saddles,  and  other 
equipments  for  them,  I  am  nnnble  to  tell ;  but  what  I 
know  is,  that,  in  a  few  v.oeks  after  the  corps  had  been 
formed,  there  remained  btit  two  hundred  horses  —  all 
the  rest  of  them  having  been  so  miserably  fed  and  badly 
cared  for  that  they  had  cither  to  be  shot  or  let  loose. 
During  the  present  Carlist  war,  there  has  been  only  one 
cavalry  charge  worth  mentioning — the  charge  of  Eraoul. 
It  was  a  very  thorough  one,  and  decided  the  victory; 
but  few  horses  were  lost  then.  Ferula's  cavalry  came 
to  grief  almost  without  fighting. 

The  commander-in-chief  of  the  province  of  Guipuz- 
coa  is  a  man  of  quite  a  different  type  from  any  of  the 
Navarre  chiefs.  Don  Antonio  Lizarraga  was  lieu- 
tenant-colonel in  the  Spanish  army,  a  comrade  of  his 
present  enemy,  the  well-known  General  Loma,  and 
had  always  the  reputation  of  being  an  excellent  officer. 
When  I  saw  him  in  April,  1873,  at  Lesaca,  he  had 
scarcely  four  hundred  men  ;  in  September  of  the  same 
year  he  had  nearly  five  thousnnd,  and  his  task  both  of 
forming  the  battalion  and  of  organizing  the  general 
management  of  the  provinces  was  a  much  more  diffi- 
cult one  than  that  of  Olio ;  for  Guipuzcoa,  or,  at  least, 
a  certain  portion  of  it,  is  much  less  Carlist  than 
Navarre.  The  population  of  that  part  of  the  province 
which  borders  on  the  sea  and  on  France  lives  chiefly 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR,  249 

by  means  of  trade  and  smuggling,  and  does  not  care 
much  about  Dios^  Patria^  y  Mey.  This  caused  a  good 
deal  of  trouble  to  Lizarraga.  At  the  very  outbreak 
of  the  war  he  was  also  much  impeded  by  Santa  Cruz, 
the  ferocious  cure  not  only  refusing  to  obey  his  com- 
mander, but  declaring  open  war  against  him,  and  seiz- 
ing all  ammunition  and  provisions  whenever  he  could 
lay  hands  upon  them.  Lizarraga  managed,  however, 
in  less  than  six  months,  to  settle  all  these  matters,  and 
with  the  exception  of  the  towns  of  San  Sebastian  and 
Irun,  the  whole  of  the  province  is  in  his  hands ;  the 
troops  are  well  armed,  and  well  provided  for,  and  the 
gun  factories  of  Placencia  and  Eibar  are  in  a  position 
to  deliver  daily  about  a  hundred  good  rifles. 

Lizarraga's  personal  courage  is  beyond  any  question, 
but  there  is  rather  more  of  the  fanatic  than  of  the  war- 
rior in  him.  He  is  intensely  religious.  When  under 
fire  he  exposes  himself  frequently  to  unnecessary  dan- 
ger, and  if  his  attention  is  called  to  the  fact,  he  invari- 
ably answers  that  he  is  under  the  protection  of  the 
"  Divina  Providencia."  His  nickname  is  the  "  Saint," 
for  he  goes  to  confession  every  week,  and  to  mass  and 
vespers  every  day,  and  there  is  a  general  belief  that  he 
has  never  spoken  to  a  woman,  except  ex  officio,  al- 
though he  is  already  a  man  of  fully  fifty  years  of  age, 
so  that  he  has  a  fair  chance  of  dying  like  Giacomo  Le- 
opardi  —  in  a  state  of  irreproachable  chastity.  But 
commendable  as  may  be  the  moral  and  religious  feel- 
ings of  Lizarraga,  they  have  a  drawback,  for  he  is 
exactly  the  sort  of  man  to  assume  that  any  idea  which 
strikes  him  when  in  church,  or  during  prayers,  is  an 
inspiration  from  heaven,  and,  however  absurd  it  may 


250  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

be,  he  carries  it  out.  In  this  way  he  was  prompted  to 
lead  his  troops  into  two  or  three  engagements  which 
were  by  no  means  successful.  He  might  also  be  re- 
proached with  being  a  little  too  verbose  for  a  general 
in  command,  but  that  is  the  result  of  his  natural  frank- 
ness and  simplicity,  both  of  which  qualities,  however, 
do  not  prevent  him  from  mercilessly  shooting  his  vol- 
unteers for  any  serious  breach  of  discipline,  and  espe- 
cially for  anything  that  has  the  aspect  of  theft.  He 
has  shot  several  men,  even  for  such  small  matters  as 
the  "unlawful  requisitioning"  of  a  fowl.  Nothing  is 
ever  taken  by  the  Guipuzcoa  volunteers  without  being 
paid  for.  Lizarraga  imposes  heavy  contributions  in 
money,  especially  on  villages  and  towns  which  show 
any  opposition  to  Carlism,  but  everything  that  is  taken 
for  the  troops,  whether  in  the  way  of  food  or  other 
requisites,  is  always  paid  for. 

Of  Generals  Velasco,  Larramendi,  Llorente,  and  the 
Carlist  chieftain  in  Catalonia,  I  am  unable  to  say  much, 
since,  though  I  saw  almost  all  of  them,  I  had  but  little 
personal  intercourse  with  any,  and  have  seen  none  of 
them  at  work.  What  struck  me,  however,  very  strong- 
ly, in  the  case  of  Velasco  and  Larramendi,  was  the 
great  despatch  and  efficiency  with  which  they  have 
organized  their  forces.  In  the  beginning  of  August 
there  was  nothing  to  be  heard  of  the  Alava  Carlists, 
yet  towards  the  beginning  of  September,  Larramendi 
appeared  at  the  siege  of  Tolosa  with  several  battalions, 
rather  indifferently  dressed,  but  well  armed,  and  suffi- 
ciently drilled  to  be  brought  at  once  into  action  with 
considerable  success.  As  to  Velasco,  his  troops  had 
always  been  the  most  smart-looking  of  any  among  the 


CAMPO  DEL   HONOR.  251 

Carlists,  and,  being  thoroughly  Parisian  by  his  habits, 
the  general  evidently  paid  more  attention  tlian  his  fel- 
low-commanders to  the  external  aspect  of  his  men. 

But  if  all  the  chief  leaders  of  Cailism  seemed  to  be 
men  against  whom  no  unprejudiced  observer  could  say 
anything  detrimental,  the  same  can  by  no  means  be 
said  of  the  personal  staff  of  Don  Carlos.  Like  a  good 
many  other  staffs,  it  was  composed  of  real  chevaliers 
and  chevaliers  d'industrie.  By  the  side  of  representa- 
tives of  the  most  ancient  families  of  Spanish  nobility, 
you  saw  men  who  had  passed  through  all  imaginable 
professions  without  liaving  obtained  a  standing  in  any. 
One  of  the  officials  nearest  to  the  person  of  Don  Car- 
los, his  military  secretary,  was,  if  I  have  been  rightly 
informed,  for  a  long  time  a  commercial  traveller  in 
Spanish  wines,  and  a  most  disagreeable  person  he  was 
too.  Another  leading  member  of  the  Pretender's  staff 
was  an  engineer  out  of  employ.  Having  lived  abroad, 
he  had  acquired  some  knowledge  of  languages,  and 
was  perhaps  a  little  more  business-like  than  Spaniards 
generally  are;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  had  lost 
every  vestige  of  that  gentlemanliness  which  is  so  char- 
acteristic of  his  countrymen,  even  of  the  lowest  class. 
Happily  enough,  all  serious  matters  were  transacted 
without  any  particularly  strong  influence  on  the  part 
of  the  personal  staff  of  the  Pretender,  General  Elio  not 
being  a  man  inclined  to  yield  to  any  sort  of  camarilla. 

The  clerical  element  was,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
not  particularly  strongly  represented  on  the  staff  of 
the  prince,  who  is  supposed  to  be  the  chief  supporter 
of  the  Spanish  priesthood.  Only  three  or  four  priests 
were  more  or  less  intimately  connected  with  it,  and 


262  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

only  one  of  them  formed,  so  to  say,  an  integral  part  of 
the  royal  staff,  and  that  was  probably  on  account  of  his 
being  a  person  of  very  high  standing  among  the  clergy. 
Monseigneur  Jose  Taixal,  Bishop  of  the  Seo  de  Urgel, 
and  Prince  (!)  of  the  Republic  (!)  of  Andorre,  was  in 
some  way  or  other  officially  commissioned  by  the  pope 
to  proceed  to  Don  Carlos'  army  as  head  of  the  church 
in  the  state  which  may  some  day  be  established.  The 
earnestness  of  the  Roman  Catholic  tendencies  of  that 
prelate  must  be  of  course  beyond  any  doubt,  and  are, 
perhaps,  most  strikingly  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  he 
assured  both  the  correspondent  of  the  Times  and  my- 
self, that  Queen  Victoria  had  long  ago  passed  over  to 
Catholicism,  but  was  afraid  of  making  it  known  to  her 
people. 

Two  other  cures  having  free  access  to  Don  Carlos 
were  Don  Ramon,  the  private  secretary  of  Elio,  whom 
I  have  already  had  occasion  to  mention,  and  Don  Fran- 
cisco Aspiroz,  chaplain  of  Dorregaray's  staff,  the  man 
to  whom  Don  Carlos  owes  his  life,  since  it  was  he  who 
assisted  the  Pretender  to  escape  in  May,  1872,  after  the 
defeat  at  Oroquieta.  Besides  that,  Don  P"'rancisco  and 
Don  Rnmon  are  about  the  cleverest  representatives  of 
the  Spanish  clergy  I  have  met  with,  excepting  only  a 
little  priest,  Don  Manuel  Barrena,  late  professor  of  phi- 
losophy in  the  seminary  of  Pamplona,  a  young  man  of 
barely  thirty  years  of  age,  of  quite  an  un-Spanish 
amount  of  knowledge,  and  an  uni)riestly  liberalism  of 
mind. 

Don  Manuel  is  a  kind  of  diplomatic  courier  of  Don 
Carlos.  He  is  constantly  on  the  move  between  the 
headquarters   and  Bayonne,  Bordeaux,  Paris,  or    any 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  253 

place  where  something  important  is  to  be  transacted. 
At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  he  put  his  clerical  garment 
aside,  took  to  private  clotiies;  and  scarcely  any  one 
would  take  him  now  for  what  he  really  is,  a  man  of  the 
most  rigid  habits,  of  indefatigable  energy  in  the  cause 
he  serves,  of  really  remarkable  attainments  in  every 
department  of  knowledge,  and,  above  all,  of  most 
pleasant  and  charming  presence.  I  had  travelled 
several  times  w'ith  Don  Manuel  in  the  mountains  be- 
fore I  knew  that  he  was  a  priest ;  but  it  happened  that, 
on  the  day  I  learned  it,  we  had  to  make  together  a  lit- 
tle journey  in  France,  and  he  asked  me  not  to  call  him 
by  his  real  name  as  long  as  we  were  on  that  journey,  as 
he  had  some  suspicion  that  the  police  were  watching 
him.  Chaffingly  I  said  to  him,  "  Then  I  will  call  you 
Don  Alonso,  maestro  di  musica." 

"  O,"  answered  Don  Manuel,  "  that  is  very  kind  on 
your  part.  Why  not  Don  Basilio,  then  ?  Though  I 
don't  believe  either  Don  Alonso  or  Don  Basilio  to  be 
13rototypes  of  mine,  I  don't  mind  your  calling  me  by 
either  of  these  names.  It  won't  be  the  first  calumny 
Spaniards,  and  especially  Spanish  priests,  have  had  to 
put  up  with,  nor  will  it  be  the  last." 

The  most  curious  person  on  the  Pretender's  staff 
was,  however,  a  squint-eyed  captain  of  the  regular 
army,  who  had  deserted  the  Republican  ranks,  joined 
the  Carlists,  and  was,  on  the  strength  of  a  literary  rep- 
utation he  had  somewhere  and  somehow  acquired,  ap- 
pointed Cromsta  de  S.  M.  El  JRey^  or  chronicler  of  the 
royal  stafi^.  I  think  I  never  saw  in  my  life  a  man  less 
capable  of  putting  two  sensible  thoughts  together. 
What  he  wrote,  he  wrote  always  in  the  most  bombas- 


254  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

tic  style,  and  frequently  in  verse.  On  one  occasion, 
when  I  left  Don  Carlos'  staff  for  a  short  time  to  go  to 
witness  the  siege  of  Tolosa,  the  Pretender,  on  my 
return,  told  me  that,  being  anxious  that  I  should  have  a 
systematic  account  of  every  day's  proceedings  of  his 
army,  orders  had  been  given  to  the  chronicler  to  com- 
municate to  me  the  notes  he  had  taken  during  ray 
absence.  The  captain  accordingly  came  to  my  quarters, 
and  began  reading  the  chronicle  of  the  ten  or  twelve 
days  during  which  I  was  absent,  and  as  I  soon  per- 
ceived that  there  was  very  little  except  quite  unbeara- 
ble "  poetry,"  I  said  to  him  that  what  I  wanted  was 
merely  a  record  of  facts  —  that  is  to  say,  where  the 
headquarters  had  been,  and  what  they  had  been  doing 
while  I  was  away. 

"  O,"  answered  the  captain,  "  I  have  nothing  of  that 
sort ;  I  don't  put  it  down.  What  chiefly  occupies  me 
is  to  take  note  of  the  sentiments  and  feelings  which 
the  events  provoke  within  me." 

And  it  w^ould  seem  that  the  expression  of  those  sen- 
timents and  feelings  must  be  very  attractive  in  some 
cases,  for  not  imfrequently  on  our  marches  I  have 
noticed  Don  Cailos  call  that  captain,  make  him  ride  by 
his  side,  and  read  what  he  had  written  down.  And  in 
this  manner  the  Cariist  troubadour  enlivened  the  mo- 
notonous hours  his  Spanish  w^ould-be  majesty  had  to 
spend  on  the  endless  marches. 


The  greatest  relief  from,  and  reward  for,  the  fatigues 
and  privations  to  which  the  Campo  del  Honor's  life 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  255 

thus  exposed  us  was  —  for  me,  at  all  events*—  in  the 
grandeur  and  beauty  of  the  scenery  we  were  living 
amidst.  The  rugged  landscapes,  the  wild  charms  of 
which  vary  every  moment,  are  here  the  source  of  end- 
less enjoyments.  At  noon,  at  night,  at  dawn,  at  sun- 
set—  at  any  minute  of  the  day,  every  spot  of  this 
magnificent  country  has  some  new  savage  witchery  to 
unveil.  Take  the  wildest  parts  of  the  Tyrol,  of  the 
Black  Forest,  of  the  Scotch  Highlands,  and  of  Northern 
(Gletscherless)  Switzerland,  put  them  together,  taking 
every  drop  of  water  out  of  the  landscape,  and  you  will 
have  some  fjiint  idea  of  the  scenery  prevailing  through- 
out the  Vasco-Navarre  provinces.  Except  during 
heavy  storms,  large  expanses  of  water,  like  those  of 
Switzerland  and  Scotland,  considerably  soften  the  harsh 
grandeur  of  mountain  scenery.  But  in  the  northern 
provinces  of  Spain  water  is  nowhere  to  be  seen,  except 
when  you  come  across  one  of  those  rare  streamlets 
which  rush  hurriedly  away  between  the  incoherent 
heaps  of  stones,  as  if  afraid  of  being  pursued  as  intru- 
ders. This  absence  of  water  makes  the  Yasco-Na- 
varre  scenery  indescribably  wild  and  severe-looking. 
Everything  here  is  brutal  and  refractory  as  the  wind 
that  blows  you  down,  as  the  rocky  soil  that  will  not 
yield  to  any  amount  of  your  efforts,  and  as  the  gigantic 
phantoms  which  seem  to  arise  at  every  step  before  you. 
In  these  uninhabitable  regions  things  seem  to  look  as 
wild  as  on  the  first  day  of  the  creation,  and  amidst  the 
grandly  rude  solitude  you  realize,  perhaps,  for  the  first 
time  in  your  life,  how  great  is  the  delusion  of  men 
w^ien  they  call  themselves  Masters  of  the  World. 
When,  on  my  first  entering  Navarre,  I  reached  the  top 


256  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

of  one  of  these  wild  mountains,  and,  wishing  to  say 
once  more  good-bye  to  France,  turned  my  eyes  towards 
that  fair  land,  the  civilized  and  carefully  cultivated  low 
country  was  lying  spread  out  beneath,  wiih  its  towns, 
villages,  fields,  meadows,  and  woods  looking  like  those 
little  bits  of  variegated  cloth  pasted  by  tailors  on  their 
pattern  card.  I  understood  then  all  the  contempt  with 
which  the  hovering  eagle  looks  down  on  the  pitiful 
ants  busily  swarming  in  their  nests  below. 

How  often  — finding  myself  early  in  the  morning  on 
the  suramitof  one  of  these  denuded  heights,  from  which 
absolutely  nothing  was  to  be  seen  around,  except  an  in- 
terminable ocean  of  clouds  spreading  itself  at  my  feet  — 
did  I  enjoy  on  a  small  scale  the  same  glorious  spectacle 
Noah  must  have  contemplated  from  the  window  of  his 
ark !  How  often  the  mountain  sylphs,  playing  tricks 
upon  me,  made  me  mistake  trees  for  monsters,  stones  for 
sheep,  horses  for  dogs,  and  black  goats  for  men  !  Once, 
I  am  sorry  to  confess,  I  actually  wished  huenas  tardes 
(good  afternoon)  to  a  representative  of  these  bearded 
quadrupeds,  who,  having  sheltered  himself  from  the 
burning  sun  in  the  cavity  of  a  rock,  was  peeping  out 
from  his  cool  retreat,  and  looked  exactly  like  a  wander- 
ing monk,  or  a  hermit.  How  often,  on  reaching  some 
lai-ge  plateau  scattered  all  over  with  big,  loose  stones, 
did  I  recollect  the  nursery  stories  of  giants  fighting  their 
battles  with  these  ponderous  projectiles,  which  no  one 
could  ever  since  remove  from  the  battle-fields !  On 
the  walls  of  the  narrow  gorges  you  see  quite  plainly 
the  work  of  the  axe  with  which  they  opened  a  way 
for  their  infernal  course.  A  bitter,  piercing  wind  howls 
in  these  passes  ever  since  they  raised  it  in  their  furious 


CAMPO  DEL   HONOR.  257 

career.  There  is  not  a  wild  flower  to  be  seen,  or  a 
singing  bird  to  be  heard  anywhere  in  these  regions."* 
They  seem  all  to  have  been  frightened  away,  and  noth- 
ing but  birds  of  prey,  and  now  and  then  a  few  stunted, 
contorted  trees  have  ventured  to  show  themselves  since 
the  time  when  the  Cj^clopes  concluded  the  gigantic 
masonry-work  of  these  mountains. 

In  the  heights  of  the  summer,  the  sun's  rays  fall  all 
day  long  almost  vertically,  so  that  there  is  not  a  vestige 
of  shadow  to  be  seen.  At  midday,  the  country  seems 
perfectly  blazing;  your  brains  are  stewed  in  your  skull, 
and  your  blood  is  drying  in  your  veins.  You  are  no 
longer  evaporating  in  perspiration,  but  reduced  to  the 
condition  of  an  Egyptian  mummy.  What  is  called 
evening  in  the  north  is  almost  unknown  here.  Night 
overtakes  you  all  at  once,  without  the  intervening  couple 
of  hours  of  that  twilight  men  seem  always  so  to  de- 
light in.  There  is  scarcely  any  interval  here  between 
the  blazing  day  and  the  pitch-black  night.  In  the 
harvest  season  you  frequently  see  the  slopes  of  the  hills 
and  the  valleys  illuminated :  work  is  going  on  under 
torchlight.  The  heat  of  the  day  renders  field  labor 
slow,  and  sometimes  quite  impracticable.  Besides,  the 
apprehension  of  a  change  in  the  weather,  or  a  raid  of 
the  enemy,  —  of  a  column  oHos  N'egros^  los  Liberales^ 
—  compels  the  Navarre  and  Basque  men  to  hurry  with 
their  harvest.  In  common  with  all  Spaniards,  they 
are  considered  by  the  world  outside  to  be  a  wretched^ 
lazy  set  of  people.     But  if  you  go  among  them,  you 

*  The  absence  of  singing  birds  is  quite  striking  almost  through- 
out Spain. 

17 


258  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

will  see  what  effort  they  make  to  recover  from  the 
brutal  sway  of  desolation  every  available  piece  of  soil. 
Patches  of  gold  yellow  and  strips  of  emerald  green 
are  sometimes  to  be  traced  to  the  very  top  of  the  gray, 
mournful  rocks ;  nnd  as  they  cannot  make  animals 
work  on  those  often  upright  slopes,  the  whole  labor  is 
literally  accomplished  by  men's  own  hands,  and  its 
returns,  tied  up  in  large  sheets  of  coarse  linen,  are 
carried  on  the  heads  of  the  peasants,  their  wives  and 
children,  sometimes  from  heights  of  a  couple  of  thou- 
sand feet  down  into  the  valley. 

But,  however  attractive  may  be  Spanish  mountain 
scenery,  the  civilized  northern  man  does  not  like  nature 
au  naturel :  he  prefers  it  a  la  maitre-cV hotels  and  so  he 
rather  goes  to  mountains  where,  by  the  side  of  a  wild 
landscape,  a  good  cook  can  be  found,  with  an  amply- 
supplied  pantry  at  his  disposal.  And,  after  all,  he  is 
not  so  very  wrong  in  his  predilections  on  this  point,  for 
I  must  confess  that  hunger  and  thirst  have  more  than 
once  poisoned  the  enjoyment  which  Vasco-Navarre 
scenery  would  have  otherwise  given  me.  Over  and 
over  again  did  I  catch  myself  in  the  act  of  uncon- 
sciously humming  the  refrain  of  Gil  Bias's  serenade :  — 

*'  Sous  le  beau  ciel  de  I'Espagne, 
Sans  boire  ni  manger, 
Voyager. 
Tra  la  la  la  la  la. 
N'avoir,  lielas,  pour  compagne 
Que  la  soif  ou  la  faim, 
C'est  malsain. 
Tra  la  la  la  la  la." 

And  you  must  by  no  means  think  that  humming,  or 


CAMPO  DEL  HONOR.  259 

even  actual  singing,  under  pressure  of  hunger  or  thirst, 
is  unnatural.  It  stifles  both.  "  Quieyi  canta  sus  males 
espantaj''  singing  frightens  one's  ills  away,  sny  Span- 
iards ;  and,  together  with  the  ringing  of  little  bells, 
acts  also  as  a  powerful  preventive  rigainst  the  approach 
of  the  devil.  That  is  why  you  seldom  meet  a  genuine 
Spaniard  on  the  liigh  road  who  is  not  singing,  and  whoso 
mules'  bells  are  not  ringing.  And  the  more  hungry 
they  both  are,  ihe  more  loudly  the  man  sings  and  the 
mule  rings. 


260  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

SPANISH    CLERICAL   MATTERS. 

IN  the  course  of  this  narrative,  the  present  position 
of  the  Spanish  clergy  has  been  already  touched 
upon.  Old  Elio  told  us  what  part  the  priests  played  in 
the  Yasco-Navnrre  provinces,  while  some  half  a  dozen 
curas^  whom  I  had  occasion  to  introduce,  showed  what 
sort  of  men  the  average  contemporary  representatives 
of  the  Spanish  church  are.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
whatever,  that  had  they  still  possessed  the  power  and 
wealtli  they  held  but  a  comparatively  short  tirme  back, 
they  would  have  been  a  very  different  set  of  men,  and 
would  have  shown  quite  different  proclivities.  But  we 
all  know  that  any  body  of  men,  —  Protestant  parsons 
certainly  included, —  when  invested  with  undue  power 
and  wealth,  are  about  as  naturally  apt  to  turn  voracious, 
wncked,  and  violent  as  any  set  of  unsociable  animals 
whose  teeth  have  not  yet  been  sawn  and  claws  not  cut. 
As  we  are,  however,  engaged  here  chiefly  in  ascertain- 
ing how  things  stand  in  the  unhappy  Peninsula,  not 
how  they  might  have  stood,  it  is  no  business  of  ours 
to  dwell  upon  topics  which  various  reverend  persons 
never  mjss  an  occasion  for  more  than  amply  discussing. 
I  will  even  leave  to  one  of  them  the  task  of  describing 
the  physical  appearance  of  the  Spanish  priests,  being 


SPANISH   CLERICAL  MATTERS.  261 

pei'fectly  conscious  th.-it  I  should  never  have  been  able 
to  approacli  him  on  this  subject  either  in  smartness  of 
writing  or  in  truly  Christian  pity  for  the  deformities  of 
our  fellcw-creatures.  The  reverend  gentleman  —  an 
LL.  D.,  and  author  of  several  bof/ks  on  the  subject  of 
Popery  —  depicts  in  the  following  manner  the  priests 
he  saw  at  Burgos  some  four  years  ago :  — 

"  They  seemed  to  be  of  the  sons  of  Anak.  Their 
long  robes  had  no  patches;  their  limbs  were  not  thrust 
into  untanned  cowhide,  nor  did  they  in  features  or  form 
bear  any  marks  of  pinching  hunger,  or  vigils  unduly 
prolonged.  Portly  their  form,  tall  their  stature,  slow 
and  majestic  their  gait ;  conscious  they  seemed  that 
they  were  the  priests  of  '  the  grand  old  to^vn '  of 
Burgos,  and  ministered  in  a  temple  than  which  are  few 
grander  on  earth.  Their  legs  were  as  massy  and  round 
almost  as  the  pillars  of  their  own  church,  and  yet, 
strong  as  they  were,  they  seemed  to  bend  and  totter 
under  the  superincumbent  edifice  of  bone,  and  muscle, 
and  fat  which  they  had  to  carry.  Their  neck  was  of  a 
girth  which  would  have  done  no  dishonor  to  the  trunk 
of  one  of  their  own  chestnut  trees.  Their  head  it 
would  have  delighted  a  phrenologist  to  contemplate ; 
it  was  bulky  and  vast,  like  some  of  those  which,  chis- 
elled out  of  granite,  lie  embedded  in  the  sands  of  Egypt. 
Their  face  was  about  as  stony ;  and  then  what  a  mag- 
nificent sombrero!  It  ran  out  in  front  in  a  long  line 
of  glossy  beaver;  behind  it  extended  in  a  line  of  equal 
length,  and  it  gracefully  curled  up  at  the  sides.  It  was 
truly  worthy  of  the  majestic  figure  which  it  topped  and 
crowned." 

Now  that  the  Spanish  curd! 8  sombiero  (hat)  is  very 


262  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

ridiculous,  is  perfectly  true.  It  is  frequently  more 
extravagant  than  that  we  see  on  Don  Basilio's  head  in 
the  Barber  of  Seville.  That  many  curas  are  fat  is  also 
correct,  though  I  have  seen  some  who  looked  —  if  it  be 
possible  —  more  angular  and  bony  than  Signor  Tnglia- 
fico  ever  did  in  the  days  when  his  impersonation  of  Don 
Basilio  was  most  successful.  Whether  the  Spanish 
priest's  legs  are  always  "  as  massy  and  round  "  as  the 
pillars  of  the  Cathedral  of  Burgos,  I  am  unable  to  tell, 
having  never  unrobed  any  of  them  either  at  Burgos 
or  elsewhere.  But  what  I  know  for  certain  is,  that,  in 
olden  as  well  as  in  modern  days,  in  the  Catholic  as 
well  as  in  the  Protestant  church,  the  most  dangerous 
and  o\jjectionable  representatives  of  clericalism  seldom 
were  the  fat,  but  rather  the  slim  ones.  Stout  people 
are,  as  a  rule,  more  or  less  good-natured,  or,  at  all 
events,  easily  bamboozled.  They  are  too  fond  of  eating, 
drinking,  and  sleeping  to  take  much  trouble  about  the 
consciences  and  thoughts  of  other  men.  The  great 
masters  in  all  branches  of  art  have  often  embodied  in 
mastodon-like  representatives  of  humanity  all  kinds  of 
roguery  and  brutality,  but  seldom  any  of  those  quali- 
ties which  are  emblematically  represented  by  the  ser- 
pent and  the  witch.  The  real  plagues  society  has  not 
yet  discovered  the  means  to  get  finally  rid  of,  are  not 
the  priests  or  parsons  with  legs  as  massy  and  round  as 
the  pillars  of  their  own  churches, but  those  with  tooth- 
pick-like legs,  the  thin,  bilious,  nervous,  restless  guar- 
dians of  "  ecclesiastical  rubbish,"  individuals  in  whom 
and  from  whom,  in  the  proper  as  well  as  in  the  figurative 
sense,  one  never  heai-s  anything  but  what  Mr.  Bright  so 
graphically  describes  as  "  the  rattle  of  the  dry  bones  of 


SPANISH   CLERICAL  MATTERS.  263 

theology."  Contrary  to  the  views  of  the  distinguished 
aforesaid  LL.  D.,  one  would  be  led  to  think  that  a  univer- 
sal law  prohibiting  admission  to  ordination  of  any  per- 
son under  twenty  stone  weight,  would,  perhaps,  present 
the  best  guarantee  for  the  tranquillity  of  the  world  at 
large  as  well  as  of  the  individual  conscience. 

However,  whether  the  reader's  sympathies  may  lie 
with  the  fat  or  tlie  flat  representative  of  the  clergy, 
the  fact  remains  nevertheless  undeniable,  that  the  power 
of  both  fat  and  flat  priests  is  gone  in  Spain,  and  gone 
forever.  And  iuture  historians  will  speak  of  the  change 
which  has  been  eff*ected  in  this  respect  in  the  bigoted 
and  superstitious  Peninsula  as  one  of  the  greatest  revo- 
lutions that  has  taken  place  in  our  century  of  great 
revolutions. 

Spaniards  have  been  at  all  times  greatly  abused  by- 
other  nations  for  their  religious  fanaticism.  But  any 
people  similarly  situated  would  have  developed  itself 
exactly  as  the  Spaniards  have  done,  and  acted  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  way.  To  begin  with,  their  soil  and 
climate  are  of  such  a  nature  as  to  lead  men  in  an  early 
phase  of* civilization  to  be  on  the  lookout  for  the  help 
of  supernatural  agencies,  rather  than  try  to  take  care 
of  themselves.  With  earthquakes,  with  high  moun- 
tains, with  almost  no  water, — consequently  with  fre- 
quent famines  and  pestilences,  —  and  with  tropical  heat 
charring  the  soil,  notions  of  "self-help"  and  "go-a- 
headism"  do  not  easily  occur  to  the  human  mind.  All 
forms  of  superstition  had,  therefore,  more  opportunity 
to  take  root  here  than  in  other,  more  commonplace 
countries.  The  sixth  and  seventh  centuries  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  Peninsula  spent  in  religious   wars  with 


264  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

the  Franks ;  Latinism,  in  its  tendency  to  spread  itself, 
invaded  Spain  and  fought  Arianism.  In  the  next 
century  the  Moors  came  across,  soon  conquered  almost 
the  whole  of  the  country,  and  the  contest  had  to  be 
maintained  with  them  for  nearly  eight  hundred  years 
(invasion  711,  recapture  of  Granada  1492).  In  this 
way,  for  fully  ten  centuries,  the  defence  of  the  native 
soil  was  at  the  same  time  a  religious  war.  The  cru- 
sades, which  were  for  the  rest  of  Europe  a  mere  inci- 
dent, became  here  the  i)(jrmanent,  all-absorbing  work 
of  body,  soul,  and  mind  of  the  nation,  the  more  so  as  it 
was  carried  on  in  their  own  country,  not  in  a  distant 
land  called  Palestine.  The  warrior  and  the  priest  had 
to  go  hand  in  hand,  the  latter  frequently  assuming 
both  functions.  That  he  should  thus  have  immensely 
grown  in  importance  was  only  legitimate ;  that  he 
should  have  taken  advantage  of  his  position  was  quite 
natural.  Kings  bowed  and  kneeled  to  the  monk,  and 
the  common  man  threw  himself  prostrate  at  liis  feet. 
Proud  though  we  may  be  to  the  mighty  grasp  of  our 
intelligence  and  understanding,  we  cannot  realize  any- 
thing like  a  faint  approach  to  the  idea  of  what  it  really 
means  for  a  people  to  spend  some  thirty-five  or  forty  gen- 
erations in  the  defence  of  their  faith  and  their  soil. 

That  a  nation  v/ho  had  passed  through  such  a  trial 
may  have  been  brought  to  the  sincere  behef  that  every 
man  differing  from  their  religious  opinions  was  a  mere 
piece  of  combustible  can  be  easily  imagined,  and  that, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  flames  of  some  thirty  odd  thou- 
sand burning  heretics  warmed  up  the  Spaniards  —  as 
indeed  they  would  have  any  mortal  —  to  the  highest 
pitch  of  devotion  and  submission  to  their  priests  is 


SPANISH   CLERICAL  MATTERS.  265 

perfectly  intelligible  too.  It  was  in  Aragon,  in  the 
luicldle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  that  these  national 
Spanish  spectacles  of  the  destruction  of  heretics  by 
fire  are  said  to  have  been  first  introduced.  By  and  by, 
as  the  Spaniards  advanced  southwards,  the  auto-defe 
went  with  them,  and  it  became  a  very  easy  thing  for 
the  priesthood  to  persuade  the  people  that  it  was  not 
the  Inquisition  that  took  advantage  of  the  retreat  of 
the  Moors,  but  the  Moors  that  took  to  flight  at  the 
mere  approach  of  the  Holy  Tribunal.  And  so  the 
historian  assures  us  that  the  very  moment  the  new 
light  —  obtained  from  the  combustion  of  the  heretics  — 
shone  over  the  country,  Spain  had  new  forces  infused 
into  her,  which  rendered  her  capable  of  routing  the 
Moors, 

But  this  conquest  of  the  gallant  and  ingenious  Afri- 
can invaders  had  results  which  neither  the  Spanish 
clergy  nor  the  Spanish  people  could  have  ever  antici- 
pated. Up  till  the  present  day,  the  traveller  in  Spain 
can  easily  distinguish  the  places  where  the  Moors 
ruled  and  the  Christians  obeyed,  from  those  where 
the  Christians  ruled  and  the  Moors  obeyed.  Without 
going  any  deeper  into  these  matters,  it  will  be  quite 
sufficient  to  point  out  the  presence  or  absence  of  ar- 
rangements for  irrigation,  and  the  preponderance  of 
Gothic  over  Moresque,  or  of  Moresque  over  Gothic 
ornamentations  in  architecture.  The  tact  is,  that  along 
with  those  Moors  who  invaded  Spain  for  the  sake  of 
fighting  and  conquest,  a  large  number  of  sunburnt  sons 
of  Africa  come  over  for  business  purposes.  A  good 
many  of  these,  seeing  that  the  country  "answered  very 
well,''  and  that  the  Spanish  women  were  very  *'  nice« 


266  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

looking,"  did  not  take  much  notice  of  the  defeat  of 
their  countrymen.  They  formed  connections  in  the 
country,  and  had  no  desire  to  leave  it.  And  it  was 
their  continued  presence  in  the  Peninsula  that  enabled 
Ferdinand,  Isabella,  Charles  V.,  and  Philip  II.  to  ac- 
complisli  all  they  did.  Intelligent  and  skilful  though 
these  sovereigns  may  have  been,  they  would  have  been 
utterly  unable  to  achieve  what  tliey  did,  had  the  Moor- 
ish colonists  not  worked  properly,  and  produced  the 
means  required  for  the  important  operations  under- 
taken by  these  Most  Catholic  Majesties.  The  conquest 
by  and  annexation  to  Spain  of  a  considerable  portion 
of  Europe  and  America  were  thus  more  the  work  of  the 
Moors  than  of  these  sovereigns,  still  less  of  the  Span- 
iards themselves.  But  the  clergy,  who  were  then,  just 
as  they  are  now,  intent  only  on  their  own  interests, 
could  not  endure  these  Moorish  settlers,  for,  though 
they  had  been  all  baptized,  and  were  thus  supposed  to 
have  turned  Christians,  the  w^olf  was,  to  the  priest's 
mental  eye,  still  visible  under  the  sheep's  skin.  The 
baptized  Moors  —  or  Moriscoes  —  did  not  seem  willing 
to  give  up  their  fortunes  to  the  monks;  they  washed 
themselves  frequently,  as  all  Eastern  infidels  do  ;  they 
read  Moorish  books,  and  showed  a  general  disposition 
to  do  a  good  many  other  just  as  objectionable  things, 
as  it  would  be  considered  nowadays  —  in  Scotland, 
for  instance  —  to  whistle  or  to  smile  on  a  Sabbath  day. 
The  sharp  scent  which  clmracterizes  all  clergy,  caused 
the  Spanish  monks  and  priests  to  discover  that  the 
converted  Moors  bore  within  themselves  the  seeds  of 
a  kind  of  progress  which  might  prove  very  antagonistic 
to  the  power  of  the  church,   and  they  watched  with 


SPANISH  CLERICAL   MATTERS.  267 

great  anxiety  for  an  opportunity  of  getting  rid  of  them. 
As  early  as  the  reign  of  Charles  V.  the  elergy  suc- 
ceeded in  subjecting  the  Moorish  settlers  to  persecution 
all  over  the  country,  without,  however,  any  more  sub- 
stantial result  than  that  of  provoking  a  desperate  revolt 
on  the  part  of  that  valiant  population.  It  was  re- 
served to  the  idiotic  Philip  III.  and  his  servile  and 
priest-ridden  minister  Lerma  to  bring  to  a  final  close 
the  period  of  Mooro-Iberian  glory  and  greatness.  In 
1609  a  decree  commanding  the  merciless  banishment 
of  all  the  Moorish  settlers  w^as  issued  ;  and  about  a 
million  of  men,  forming  the  most  useful  part  of  the 
population  of  the  Peninsula,  were  driven  by  means  of 
sword  and  fire  towards  the  shores  of  Africa.  Nearly 
the  whole  of -them  perished  on  their  way;  the  priest- 
hood was  triumphant ;  but  they  soon  perceived  that 
the  banishment  of  the  Moors  was  the  first  blovr  they 
inflicted  upon  their  own  power  and  wealth. 

In  a  very  few  years  after  the  departure  of  tlie 
African  colonists,  the  king,  as  well  as  his  ministers, 
discovered  that  there  was  no  more  money  to  be  got 
out  of  the  nation.  Everything  had  gone  to  ruin,  the 
monks  alone  remaining  in  a  flourishing  condition. 
There  were  at  that  time  about  nine  thousand  convents 
for  monks  alone  in  Spain,  without  reckoning  the  nun- 
neries for  females,  and  all  of  them  were  immensely 
rich.  Whatever  might  have  been  then  the  abstract 
views  concerning  the  sacredness  of  ecclesiastical  prop- 
erty, they  proved  pov/erless  against  the  action  of  the 
natural  law,  according  to  which,  in  periods  of  distress, 
those  who  have  something  are  invariably  made  to  pay 
for  those  who  havcnothing;  and  it  was  in  1626  that 


268  SPAIN  AND  THE  SPANIARDS. 

the  Cortes  of  Madrid,  for  the  first  time,  timorously 
suggested  that  there  existed  some  avaihible  resources 
in  the  hands  of  the  clergy.  The  hint  was  not  of  a 
nature  to  be  easily  taken  advantage  of,  but  the  first 
blow  was  given,  and  some  eighty  years  later  a  "  loan  " 
was  obtained  from  the  clergy,  while  under  Alberoni 
we  see  them  paying  regular  taxes,  and  a  hundred  years 
later  everything  that  was  still  left  in  the  convents  and 
churches  after  the  French  plunder,  was,  without  further 
ceremony,  confiscated.  Along  with  the  ecclesiastical 
wealth  disappeared  also  the  Jesuits  (1767),  and  the 
Inquisition  (1808).  True  that  attempts  were  subse- 
quently made  to  return  to  the  old  state  of  afiairs. 
Ferdinand  YII.  tried  to  re-establish  the  monstrous 
tribunal  of  the  Inquisition ;  Isabella  "  the  Innocent  '* 
decreed  twice  or  three  times  the  return  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal property ;  but  such  incidents  were  the  last  dying 
flames  of  a  burned-out  torch.  The  best  proof  that  the 
old  hold  of  the  clergy  upon  the  popular  mind  was 
gone  was  in  the  fact  that  Protestants  were  allowed  to 
be  buried,  to  establish  cemeteries  and  churches  of  their 
own,  while  Scotch  and  English  missionaries  began  to 
perambulate  the  country  without  any  particular  moles- 
tation. 

The  progress  which  anti  clerical  and  anti-religious 
tendencies  have  made  in  Spain  within  the  last  ten  years 
is  something  amazing.  The  reverend  author  whom  I 
mentioned  above  states  that  there  were  still  no  fewer 
than  three  thousand  priests  in  Burgos  in  1869.  I  sup- 
pose he  must  have  added  a  0  too  much  by  mistake,  or 
taken  his  information  from  a  very  ancient  guide-book. 
Reduced  to  a  merely  nominal  pay,  which  is,  into  the 


SPANISH   CLERICAL   MATTERS.  269 

bargain,  nearly  all  over  Spain  two  years  in  arrears, 
utterly  disregarded  by  the  government,  frequently 
insulted  by  the  people  they  have  so  long  oppressed, 
and  with  nearly  no  congregation  to  attend  to, 
the  Spanish  priests  decrease  in  numbers  every  day. 
Where  they  disappear  I  am  unable  to  tell ;  some  of 
them  have  taken  to  trade  and  professions  in  the  coun- 
try —  if  what  exists  in  that  line  in  the  provinces  of 
Spain  can  be  so  denominated.  A  large  number  took 
refuge  on  the  territory  occupied  by  the  Carlists. 
Churches  in  large  towns  which  had,  perhaps,  fifty 
priests  each  under  Isabella,  have  three  or  four  now. 
There  are  first-rate  Casas  de  Misericordia  (alms- 
houses) with  not  a  single  priest  residing  in  them,  and 
when  sacrament  is  to  be  administered  to  a  dying  per- 
son it  must  be  fetched  from  the  neighboring  church. 
Even  the  largest  cathedrals  are  seldom  frequented. 
Over  and  over  again,  and  at  all  hours,  did  I  enter 
churches  in  Madrid  as  well  as  in  the  provinces,  without 
ever  seeing  in  them  more  than  half  a  dozen  old  women, 
weeping  out  their  grief  in  the  dark  corners  of  the 
temples,  formerly  so  overcrowded,  and  now  quite 
deserted.  Except  in  the  Carlist  regions,  the  scarcity 
of  men  attending  mass  even  on  Sundays  and  Feast 
Days  is  striking.  The  women  flock  still  in  numbers, 
but  it  is  quite  perceptible  that  the  majority  of  them 
come  rather  through  habit  —  many,  perhaps,  only  to 
show  themselves  and  to  see  other  people — than  from 
any  religious  motive.  The  incomparably  larger  attend- 
ance at  out-door  religious  processions  is  the  best  proof 
in  support  of  this  supposition  :  women  and  men  con- 
gregate   there    equally   readily.      But    the    devotion 


270  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

shown  in  former  days  on  such  occasions  is  speedily 
vanishing.  A  writer,  publishing  in  Macmilhin's  Maga- 
zine some  notes  on  liis  residence  in  the  interior  of  Spain, 
during  the  summer  of  1873,  tells,  in  the  January  issue 
of  1874,  a  fact  very  much  to  this  point :  — 

"  A  few  nights  since  I  stood  with  raised  hat  as  the 
'host '  passed  by,  heralded  by  its  many  lamps  of  many 
colors ;  the  viaticum  was  being  carried  to  some  Chris- 
tian dying  treat.  Suddenly  a  drove  of  pigs  came  squeak- 
ing down  a  street  close  by ;  women  in  mute  adoration 
w^ere  on  their  knees  on  the  pavement,  sightly  and 
devoutly  enough  ;  men  were  divided  into  hats-on  and 
hats-off,  but  the  majority  was  of  the  latter  class.  The 
pigs  charged  the  procession,  and,  to  my  horror,  a  loud 
and  audible  titter  ran  through  the  lantern-bearers, 
which  became  a  hoarse  laugh  in  the  mouths  of  the 
pig-drivers." 

A  short  time  back,  the  poor  unconcerned  pigs  would 
have  been  beaten  to  death,  and  the  pig-drivers  and 
lantern-bearers  (who,  be  it  remembered,  are  amateur 
members  of  such  processions)  would  not  only  have 
forborne  from  laughing,  but  would  have  paid  an  extra 
visit  to  church  to  repent  their  having  been  witnesses 
of  such  an  occurrence.  The  same  writer  says,  that 
but   a  few  years  ago,  in  the   reign  of  Isabella,  — 

"An  Englishman  who,  ignorantly,  merely  took  off 
his  hat,  and  did  not  dismount  also  from  his  horse  as 
the  'host'  passed  him  in  the  street,  was  in  this  town 
dragged  from  his  horse  by  order  of  the  priests,  and 
lined  or  imprisoned,  for  the  offence." 

But  when  I  venture  to  state  that  bigotry  and  even  a 
good  deal  of  sensible  religious  feeling  are   departing 


SPANISH  CLERICAL   MATTERS.  271 

from  Spain,  I  by  no  means  mean  to  assert  that  super- 
stition is  seriousl}^  decreasing.  Among  tlie  Latin  race 
especially,  bigotry  and  superstition  are  perfectly  distinct 
things.  There  are  plenty  of  people  all  over  the  world 
who  never  believed  in  anything,  but  would  not  enter  a 
business  on  Monday,  start  on  a  journey  on  Friday,  or 
cut  their  nails  on  Sunday.  It  would,  therefore,  be 
quite  absurd  to  expect  that  ancient,  deeply  inveterate 
superstitions  should  be  soon  abandoned  by  the  utterly 
ignorant  mass  of  a  people  living  in  a  country  so  much 
predisposing  the  mind  to  superstitions,  and  preserving 
such  an  immense  stock  of  miracles  and  saints  in  its 
national  memory,  as  well  as  in  its  national  monuments. 
A  good  many  earnest  Protestants  may  exclaim,  on 
reading  this,  "  But  what  is,  then,  to  become  of  a  country 
where  religion  is  gone  and  superstition  remains?  It 
must  finally  collapse  into  a  horrible  chaos!  "  l^othing 
of  the  kind.  The  same  thing  has  been  going  on  for  a 
long  time  past  in  France  and  Italy,  and  the  business 
of  life  runs  on  in  its  usual  way.  Superstitions  will 
disappear,  jt>oco  a  poco^  under  pressure  of  the  spread 
of  knowledge  ;  while  indiiferentism  in  religious  matters 
does  not  necessarily  turn  men  into  savages  —  at  least 
it  did  not  produce  any  such  efiect  on  that  portion  of 
the  Latin  race  which  has  already  fallen  off  from  the 
church.  The  rsgime  of  civil  hajHisms  and  civil  burials^ 
in  which  the  ultra-Republicans  in  Spain  delight  just 
now,  and  under  which  a  man  is  welcomed  into  the 
world  or  ushered  out  of  it  by  a  band  of  local  volunteers 
blustering  the  Marseillaise  under  liis  windows,  or  on 
his  way  to  the  cemetery,  will  probably  soon  be  aban- 
doned.    As  long  as  baptism,  religious  burial,  and  reli- 


272  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

gious  marriage  are  regarded  with  respect  by  any  con- 
siderable portion  of  society,  every  sensible  man,  however 
indifferent  to  religion  he  may  be  himself,  will  always 
submit  to  them.  What  does  it  matter  to  him  that  a 
cura  reads  some  prayers  over  his  body  when  he  is 
dead,  and  when  he  knows  that  any  objection  on  his 
part  to  such  a  harmless  ceremony  would  cause  grief  to 
people  who  may  be  dear  to  him,  and  whom  he  leaves 
behind  ?  Upon  what  sort  of  ground  can  he  withhold 
his  child  from  baptism,  when  he  does  not  know  whether, 
when  grown  up,  the  child  will  not  become  so  religious 
as  to  feel  quite  unhappy  because  he  has  not  been 
christened  in  the  usual  manner?  What  sort  of  justifi- 
cation can  he  plead  for  withholding  from  the  marriage 
ceremony,  as  long  as  he  is  not  quite  sure  that  some 
fool  may  not  turn  up  some  day  and  insult  his  wife  by 
calling  her  a  mere  concubine,  or  a  law  may  not  be 
passed  depriving  her  children  from  inheriting  their 
father's  property  ?  For  a  long  time  past,  in  Catholic 
countries,  this  way  of  dealing  with  the  practical  side 
of  religion  has  been,  and  is,  daily  acted  upon  by  thou- 
sands of  men  ;  only  not  all  of  them  are  disposed  to 
avow  it. 

It  may  be  naturally  asked.  How  do  such  families 
manage  to  live  where  the  wi(ie  is  bigoted,  or  even 
simply  religious,  while  the  husband  becomes,  by  and 
by,  an  indifferent?  To  this  I  am  not  able  to  answer. 
All  I  know  is,  that  they  do  manage  it,  and  that,  in  the 
majority  of  cases,  they  never  think  of  quarrelling  about 
any  religious  question,  except  when  the  religious  zeal 
of  the  wife  begins  to  interfere  with  the  home  comfort 
of  the  family ;  when  through  her  too  long  and  frequent 


SPANISH   CLERICAL   MATTERS.  273 

visits  to  cliurch  children  break  iheir  noses,  or  dinner  is 
neglected,  or  anything  similar  occurs.  Many  men 
prefer  a  religious  wife,  as  offering  a  greater  guarantee 
of  conjugal  fidelity,  and  as  being  less  likely  to  be  fond 
of  expensive  pleasures.  Others  see  in  religion  a  check 
against  a  .woman's  becoming  dull  in  doing  nothing 
when  they  are  engaged.  I  knew  some  medical  men 
and  professors  of  natural  sciences,  who  said  that  a  wife 
constantly  soaring  into  ideals  was  a  relief  to  them 
when  they  come  home  after  a  hard  day's  dealing  in 
organic  matters.  But  the  great  majority,  I  believe, 
think  nothing,  except  that  it  is  quite  a  matter  of  course 
that  women  should  be  religious,  while  men  should  be 
left  to  think  as  they  please. 

For  a  good  many  people  in  Protestant  countries  such 
a  state  of  affairs  may  seem  quite  impossible,  and  they 
may  perhaps  be  inclined  to  suspect  the  veracity  of  my 
statements.  I  feel,  therefore,  almost  delighted  to  be 
able  to  adduce  here  an  authority  which  they  will  proba- 
bly be  less  disposed  to  question.  Just  as  I  was  writ- 
ing these  pages,  a  copy  of  the  London  Times  contam- 
ing  a  letter  from  that  journal's  special  correspondent 
at  Konie,  on  the  subject  of  '•  Religious  Apathy  in  Italy," 
was  laid  upon  my  table.  The  letter  is  so  outspoken, 
and  contains  so  few  commonplace  remarks,  that  I  am 
surprised  how  the  Times  printed  it  at  all.  Some  hesi- 
tation must,  however,  have  arisen  in  Printing-house 
Square,  for  the  letter  was  dated  Rome,  January  6th, 
and  appeared  only  on  the  12th.  This  is  what  the  able 
correspondent  said  on  the  subject  we  have  been  con- 
sidering here :  — 

"  The  religious  movement  which  is  now  convulsing 
18 


274  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

Germany  and  Switzerland,  and  which  is  followed  with 
eager  attention  by  England  and  America,  is  looked 
upon  with  the  most  perfect  indifference  in  Italy.  .  .  . 
They  will,  as  they  say,  not  only  have  no  religious 
squabbles,  but  even  no  religious  differences  among 
themselves  ;  no  heresy,  no  schism.  They  aspire  to  that 
religious  liberty  which  is,  in  their  opinion,  perfectly 
compatible  with  religious  unity.  There  may  be  in 
their  country  unlimited  dissent,  but  it  must  be  individ- 
ual ;  as  many  persuasions  as  there  are  heads,  but  no 
distinct  confessions  or  denominations ;  no  Babel  of 
churches  or  sects.  It  must  be  quite  possible,  as  it  has 
indeed  always  been,  even  under  the  most  uncompromis- 
ing Papal  tyranny,  for  husband  and  wife,  for  brother  and 
sister,  to  live  together  in  love  and  unity  under  the  same 
roof,  thougli  the  male  members  of  the  *  happy  family,' 
are,  or  think  themselves,  thorough  atheists  or  materi- 
alists, while  those  of  the  other  sex  are  plunged  into 
the  most  abject  and  silly  superstition.  .  .  .  What  the 
Italians  did  in  the  days  of  Luther  and  Calvin  they  do 
now  in  those  of  DoUinger  and  Loyson  ;  they  receive 
the  news  of  a  religious  squabble  with  curiosity,  but 
dismiss  it  with  a  sneer.  .  .  .  The  Italian  will  carry 
superstition  to  any  extent,  but  there  is  no  bigotry  in 
his  composition.  It  was  only  cgainst  the  Dominican 
inquisitors  in  Milan  and  Naples  that  the  populace 
frequently  rose  in  open  rebellion,  and  it  is  only  against 
their  Jesuit  teachers  that  the  Italian  youths  throughout 
the  country  always  harbored  and  evinced  violent 
hatred,  because  they  imagined  that  both  those  monastic 
orders,  each  in  its  way,  attempted  to  interfere  with  the 
right  of  private  judgment   in   religious  matters.     So 


SPANISH  CLERICAL  MATTERS.  Tib 

long  as  a  man  confessed  and  took  the  Sacrament, 
cherished  his  children,  and  paid  his  marriage  fees, 
what  business  was  it  of  piiest,  monk,  or  pope  to  pry 
into  his  thought  or  probe  his  heart?  .  .  .  For  those 
who  want  a  church  there  should  be  a  church  of  some 
sort  or  other.  What  matters  it  how  many  new  dogmas 
are  proclaimed,  or  how  many  new  saints  are  canonized, 
if  no  one  compels  you  to  believe  in  them  ?  Why 
should  you  distress  yourself  about  the  Pope's  Infallibility, 
if  you  are  allowed  to  laugh  at  it  in  your  sleeve  ?  There 
have  been  prelates,  and  there  have  been  cardinals,  and 
even  popes,  whose  religion,  if  inquired  into,  would  have 
been  as  complete  a  blank  as  your  own  ;  but  these  went 
through  life,  and  rose  from  rank  to  rank  in  the  hierarchy, 
with  a  mere  semblance  and  mockery  of  belief.  Why 
should  it  not  be  so  ?  Let  it  be  free  to  every  man  to  be 
a  Christian,  a  sceptic,  and  even  a  hypocrite.  ^Dieu 
connait  ceux  qui  sont  a  lui.^  Let  there  be  peace  on 
earth,  and  let  every  man  go  to  heaven,  or  elsewhere, 
his  own  way." 

This  is  exactly  the  state  of  affairs  speedily  becoming 
prevalent  all  through  Spain,  and  which  has  been 
reigning  throughout  the  educated  classes  in  France  dur- 
ing the  whole  of  the  present  century.  It  will  only 
assume  a  more  rough  form  in  the  Peninsula,  for  the 
Spanish  character  is  more  frank  than  either  the  Italian 
or  the  French.  In  Italy  the  presence  of  the  pope,  the 
existence  of  the  convents,  and  the  wealth  still  held  by 
some  of  the  ecclesiastical  corporations  necessarily 
mitigate  the  aspect  of  things  on  the  surface.  Still 
more  so  is  this  the  case  with  France,  which  but  a 
short  time  ago  supported  the  Holy  Father  by  means  of 


276  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

"  thinking  bayonets  *'  and  "  Chassepots,"  which  never 
cared  a  brass  farthing  for  His  Holiness.  The  worship 
of  pohtical,  rehgious,  and  eveiy  other  form  of  decorum, 
in  the  great  mass  of  the  population  of  the  latter 
country  will  probably  considerably  retard  there  the 
progress  of  avoioed  religious  indifferentism ;  but  any 
one  who  knows  these  countries  can  entertain  no 
doubt  that  ultimately,  Spain,  Italy,  and  France  will 
stand  on  the  footing  of  perfect  equality  in  this  respect. 
One  must  be  brought  up  within  the  pale  of  the  Latin 
church  to  be  able  fully  to  realize  how  natural  and  un- 
avoidable all  this  is,  and  how  thoroughly  sincere  and 
conscientious  men  can  be  brought  to  feel  perfectly  in- 
different with  regard  to  religion,  yet  be  deeply  con- 
vinced that  on  that  account  they  are  neither  savages 
nor  criminals.  If  the  most  zealous  and  intolerant  of 
the  Protestants  knew  only  a  few  stories  of  the  inter- 
nal struggles,  the  hesitation,  the  grief,  and  the  despair 
through  which  a  man  brought  up  as  a  Catholic  — 
unless  he  becomes  a  student  of  natural  sciences,  and 
consequently  be  turned  at  once  into  a  pure  materiaHst 
—  has  to  pass  in  his  transition  from  bigotry  to  indif- 
ferentism, they  would  not  have  one  word  of  censure 
to  utter  against  such  men. 

But  I  feel  afraid  that  in  saying  all  this  I  may  cause 
some  Protestant  readers  to  suppose  that,  since  matters 
had  come  to  such  a  pass  in  Catholic  countries,  the  best 
thing  would  be  to  introduce  some  form  of  Protestant 
worship  among  them.  Nothing  could  be  more  erro- 
neous than  such  a  conclusion.  Protestant  missionaries 
have  not  been  wanting  in  any  of  those  countries,  and 
the  result  of  their  efforts  has  invariably  been  zero,  or 


SPANISH  CLERICAL   MATTERS.  277 

little  better.  Bibles  printed  in  the  languages  of  the 
natives  have  been 'distributed  ;  chapels  nnd  preachers 
established  as  soon  as  the  civil  code  of  the  countries 
permitted  them.  But  if  the  Frenchman,  the  Spaniard, 
and  the  Italian  entered  these  chapels,  it  was  by  sheer 
curiosity;  if  he  read  the  Bible  it  was  (even  in  the 
happiest  cases)  merely  as  a  sublime  and  new  book, 
but  never  as  one  calculated  to  make  him  accept  the 
religious  views  of  the  nation  whicli  has  "  only  one 
sauce,  and  a  thousand  religions."  The  cold  form  of 
Protestant  worship,  with  its  long  discourses,  will  never 
suit  the  Latin  race,  especially  the  more  southern  rep- 
resentatives of  it.  I  again  quote  the  above  Times 
letter  in  support  of  my  assertions. 

"A  religion  all  of  pomp,  and  ceremony,  and  grovel- 
ling asceticism,  suited  the  southern  temperament,  and 
down  "almost  to  the  present  day  the  opera  and  ballet 
in  Rome  were  always  worse  than  third  rate,  and 
poorly  attended,  because  the  theatre  could  not  com- 
pete with  the  church  in  the  pomp  and  circumstance 
of  mere  scenic  effects.  .  .  .  Italians  do  not  see  the 
advantage  of  raising  many  churclies  on  the  ruins  of 
one.  It  would  be,  in  their  opinion,  like  '  marrying  the 
pope,  and  begetting  a  whole  brood  of  Infallibles.'  .  .  . 
There  are  now  Waldensian,  Methodist,  and  other  Evan- 
gelical churches  and  schools  in  Rome,  as  in  other  Ital- 
ian cities,  but  their  success  is  not  very  encouraging 
even  in  the  opinion  of  their  candid  promoters." 

The  same  is  the  case  with  Spain.  There  are  chapels 
in  Madrid,  Seville,  Alicante,  and  a  few  other  towns, 
but  they  never  had  and  never  will  have  any  more  in- 
fluence  upon   the   general   state   of  religion   in  these 


278  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

countries  than  a  chapel  got  up  somewhere  near  Wol- 
verhampton by,  if  I  rightly  remember,  some  twenty- 
tliree  gentlemen  anxious  to  introduce  the  rite  of  the 
Greek  church  iu  England,  will  have  in  the  United 
Kingdom. 

True  that  should  one  be  disposed  to  give  one's  self 
some  trouble,  one  may  find  in  Madrid  and  in  a  few 
of  the  southern  towns  a  copy  of  the  Bible.  But  it 
is  always  sure  to  be  a  very  dusty  one ;  and  for  my 
part  I  have  never  seen  any  either  in  circulation  or 
even  in  the  show-windows  of  the  booksellers.  All 
the  efforts  of  the  "  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society," 
of  the  "  National  Bible  Society  of  Scotland,"  of  the 
"Edinburgh  Evangelization  Society,"  and  what  not, 
have  never  obtained  any  greater  result  than  that  which 
crowned  the  efforts  of  the  "  London  Society  for  Pro- 
moting Christianity  among  the  Jews,"  which  Spends, 
I  believe,  about  tliirty  thousand  pounds  a  year  for  con- 
verting on  the  average  about  thirty  Jews,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  something  like  one  thousand  pounds  apiece 
to  the  people  of  England.  But  what  struck  me  above 
all  in  these  matters  is  the  correctness  of  a  remark  once 
made  by  some  one  —  that  if  one  happens  to  meet  a 
Spanish,  Italian,  or  French  Protestant,  one  is  almost 
sure  to  find  him  in  the  long  run  either  a  fanatic  or  an 
idiot,  or  both,  though,  as  a  rule,  he  looks  at  first  sight 
a  very  respectable  and  intelligent  man. 

I  feel  it  a  duty,  however,  to  qualify  my  assertion  that 
all  the  English  and  Scotch  efforts  to  spread  the  Scrip- 
ture in  the  Peninsula  have  had  no  result  whatever. 
They  had,  at  all  events,  one  I  know  of.  They  gave  an 
opportunity  to  Mr.  George  Borrow  to  write  his  de- 


SPANISH  CLERICAL  MATTERS.  279 

lightful  "Bible  in  Spain,"  It  speaks  of  the  cosas  de 
Espana  as  they  stood  nearly  forty  years  ago ;  yet  the 
work  remains  still  an  inimitable  one  —  the  more  so  as 
it  is  evident  that  the  author  set  out  to  labor  in  perfect 
earnest,  and  wrote  one  of  the  most  amusing  volumes 
that  has  ever  been  produced  in  connection  with  a  sub- 
ject of  this  sort. 


280  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


PRIM   AND    AMADEO. 


HAVING  thus  far  investigated  the  Carlist  and 
clerical  —  or  retrograde  —  elements  of  Spanish 
national  life,  let  us  now  throw  a  glance  at  the  liberal 
elements  of  the  country,  as  represented  by  its  various 
party  governments. 

There  is  a  Spanish  story  which  tells  us  that  when  Fer- 
dinand III.  —  who  turned  out  to  be  a  saint  —  reached 
Paradise,  and  was  introduced  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  she 
proposed  to  him  to  demand  any  favor  he  liked  for  his 
country.  The  good  sovereign,  always  nnxious  about 
the  welfare  of  his  loyal  subjects,  asked  for  oil,  garlic, 
wine,  and  corn.  "  Granted,"  said  the  Virgin ;  "  what 
else?"  "Handsome  women,  valiant  men,  and  strong 
mules."  "Certainly;  what  more?"  "Bright  skies, 
bulls,  relics,  and  cigarritos."  "By  all  means;  any- 
thing else?"  "A  good  government."  "  O,  no!" 
exclaimed  the  Virgin,  "never!  For  were  it  granted 
to  Spain,  no  angel  would  any  longer  remain  with  us  in 
heaven." 

The  Spaniard's  boast  of  his  country  as  well  as  his 
complaint  of  his  government,  embodied  in  this  story, 
are  only  too  well  justified.  If  the  first  monarchs  of 
the  Austrian  dynasty  were  cruel,  they  had  at  all  events 


PRIM  AND  AMADEO.  281 

the  merit  of  being  intelligent;  but  since  the  days  of 
Felipe  II.  Spain  has  never  seen  on  her  throne  any- 
thing but  idiotism,  bigotry,  prostitution,  and  corrup- 
tion. When  Isabella  started  off  for  Ilendaye  and 
Pau  with  Father  Claret,  Marfori,  and  a  heavy  load 
of  treasures,  including  jewels  and  pictures,  which  were 
generally  considered  as  belonging  to  the  crown,  the 
nation  breathed  freely.  The  men  who  came  then  to 
power  were  all  popular;  they  were  all  supposed  to 
have  more  or  less  suffered  for  the  cause  of  national 
liberty;  they  had  certainly  fought  against  oppression. 
Prim,  who  was  virtually,  though  not  nominally,  at  the 
head  of  them,  was  a  self-made  man  of  obscure  extrac- 
tion, and  could  therefore  be  fairly  supposed  to  know 
the  real  wants  of  the  people.  He  was,  besides,  a 
native  of  Catalonia,  and  Catalans  are,  as  a  rule,  sup- 
posed to  be  at  least  as  shrewd  and  business-like  a  set 
of  men  as  the  Scotch  or  the  Gascons.  But  the  chief 
merit  of  Don  Jnan  Prim  seemed  to  be  thnt  he  was 
an  excellent  political  soldier,  exactly  the  thing  wanted 
just  then  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  Spanish  gov- 
ernment, and  for  the  defence  of  Spain  from  the  attack 
of  any  Pretender.  The  revolution  had  been  carried 
with  the  watchword  of  "Down  with  the  Bourbons!" 
And  for  the  mnss  of  the  people  who  cared  anything  at 
all  about  politics,  this  watchword  meant  simply  "Down 
with  the  monarchy!"  For  the  Spaniard's  national 
pride,  his  Espanoles  sobre  todos^  would  never  have 
admitted  the  idea  of  any  foreign  monarch  being  re- 
sorted to.  Besides,  there  was  a  proclamation  circu- 
lated with  Prim's  signature  attached  to  it,  w^hich  said, 
among   other   beautiful   things,  "  Let   our  cry  be  the 


282  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

republic.  Let  us  get  rid  of  the  monarchs  who  have 
always  brought  misfortune  upon  us.  Let  us  show 
ourselves  worthy  descendants  of  the  Cid  and  Riego." 

On  the  28th  of  September,  1868,  the  troops  of  the 
revolution,  under  Serrano,  met  those  of  the  monarchy 
under  Novaliches  at  Alcolea,  and  on  the  next  day  the 
Provisional  Junta  of  Madrid  received  a  congratulatory 
address  from  the  British  residents  of  the  city  on  the 
subject  of  the  birth  of  a  new  nation,  and  on  the 
splendid  manner  in  which  the  revolution  had  been 
accomplished.  The  Junta  answered  that  they  were 
stretching  out  their  hands  to  the  British  people,  who 
gained  their  liberties  two  centuries  ago,  and  offering 
their  heartiest  thanks  to  the  noble  sons  of  Albion. 
Serrano  and  Prim,  after  a  triumphal  entry  into  Ma- 
drid, publicly  embraced  each  other,  all  party  differences 
seemed  to  have  been  drowned  in  that  kiss,  and  an 
apparently  prodigious,  bewildering  enthusiasm  was 
ignited,  as  by  mngic,  in  something  like  seventeen  mil- 
lions of  Spanish  hearts  and  heads.  True,  that  about 
a  fortnight  later  Prim  was  shot  at  in  the  street;  but 
that  was  considered  a  meaningless  case  of  some  per- 
sonal rancor  —  in  fact,  so  trifling  a  matter  that  Prim 
himself  ordered  the  intended  assassin  to  go  free. 
Early  in  November,  however,  some  rather  disquieting 
symptoms  began  to  show  themselves.  The  fact  that 
not  one  member  of  the  Republican  party  had  been 
admitted  into  the  cabinet  formed  by  the  provisional 
government  naturally  provoked  susi3icion.  Republi- 
can demonstrations  took  place  at  Madrid,  and  were 
followed  by  actual  insurrections  at  Cadiz  and  Malaga, 
of  so  formidable  a  nature  as  to  compel  the  ministry  to 


PRIM  AND  AMADEO.  283 

send  out  the  "pacifying"  Generals  Pavia  and  Caballero 
de  Rodas  with  a  large  number  of  troops.  It  became 
evident  that  Prim's  promises  of  establishing  a  repub- 
lic had  been  thrown  overboard,  and  that  the  leaders 
of  the  various  monarchical  parties  had  used  the  Demo- 
crats and  Republicans  for  the  purpose  of  overthrowing 
Isabella,  Gonzalez  Bravo,  and  the  camarilla,  and  tak- 
ing the  power  into  their  own  hands,  but  by  no  means  for 
the  purpose  of  carrying  out  the  views  of  their  tempo- 
rary allies.  Seiior  Olozaga  soon  drew  up  a  programme 
in  the  sense  of  constitutional  monarchy,  and  in  the 
first  days  of  the  new  year  (1869),  the  provisional  gov- 
ernment addressed  the  nation  in  the  same  sense,  the 
manifesto  being  signed  by  all  the  members  of  the 
cabinet,  including  Prim  himself.  This  manifesto  was 
answered  by  one  from  the  National  Republican  Com- 
ilittee,  and  being  signed  by  men  like  Oiense,  Figue- 
ras,  Castelar,  Chao,  &c.,  showed  that  there  was  a 
complete  breach  between  even  the  most  moderate 
members  of  the  Republican  party  and  the  govern- 
ment, and  that  more  blood  was  to  be  shed  before  any 
definite  arrangement  could  be  arrived  at. 

The  subsequent  events  are,  probably,  still  fresh  in 
the  reader's  memory.  The  Constituent  Cortes,  elected 
under  the  strong  influence  of  the  leaders  of  the  various 
anti-Republican  parties,  declared  themselves  in  favor 
of  the  monarchical  form  of  government,  appointing 
Serrano  to  the  regency  until  a  suitable  person  was 
found  to  be  seated  upon  the  throne,  while  Prim  be- 
came President  of  the  Council  of  Ministers  and  Gen- 
eralissimo of  the  Army.  The  two  influences  and  am- 
bitions were  thus  pretty  fairly  balanced.     And  though 


284  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

it  has  been  said  that  Serrano  was  thus  "  locked  up  in 
a  golden  cage,"  the  fact  is  nevertheless  undeniable  that 
Prim  with  his  whole  array  could  do  nothing  against 
Serrano  with  the  union  of  nearly  all  the  monarchical 
parties  to  back  him.  If  the  finances  of  Spain  had 
not  been  in  such  a  desperate  condition,  and  if  the 
spread  of  knowledge  in  political  science  was  in  any 
way  approaching  the  spread  of  the  art  of  political  in- 
trigues in  the  country,  Prim  might  have  been  brought, 
perhaps,  to  finally  embrace  the  cause  of  the  republic, 
and  would  have  probably  become  a  great  man.  He 
had  no  lack  of  energy,  he  was  brave,  and  devoured  by 
ambition.  He  was  oflfered  a  crown,  and  would  have 
been  readily  invested  with  a  dictatorship.  But  he 
was  aware  of  his  utter  ignorance  of  all  that  constitutes 
statesmanship,  and  was  under  the  iniju-ession  that  the 
Republican  party  was  not  in  a  position  to  furnish  him 
the  necessary  assistance  in  this  respect.  He  knew  also 
that  all  financial  help  was  sure  to  be  refused  to  him  by 
the  monetary  classes,  at  home  as  well  as  abioad,  the 
very  moment  he  established  a  republic ;  and  the  for. 
eign  diplomatists,  by  constantly  pointing  out  to  him 
the  isolation  in  which  Spnin  would  be  placed  in  monar- 
chical Europe,  finally  discouraged  any  attempt  being 
made  by  him  in  that  direction.  However,  it  would 
not  be  fair  to  suppose  that  he  abandoned  the  Repub- 
lican cause  without  undergoing  a  series  of  struggles 
with  himself.  If  he  was  not  a  Republican  or  a  Demo- 
crat at  heart,  —  as  his  craving  for  the  titles  of  Conde 
de  Reus  and  Marques  de  Castillejos  show  —  he  was 
good  natured  enough  to  be  always  on  the  side  of 
what  could  be  represented  to  him  as  the  cause  of  jus- 


PRIM  AND  AMADEO.  285 

tice  and  progress,  and  gentlemanly  enough  to  keep  his 
word  when  he  once  gave  it.  Even  his  love  for  fighting, 
which  he  enjoyed  so  much  at  home,  and  in  Turkey  and 
Morocco,  did  not  prevent  him  from  breaking  up  the 
Mexican  campaign  as  soon  as  he  understood  what  it 
really  meant.  "  We  are  sent  here  to  establish  a  mon- 
archy in  a  country  where  there  is  not  a  single  monarch- 
ist," wrote  he  to  Madrid,  and  gave  up  the  business.* 
We  have,  therefore,  ample  reason  for  believing  that  if 
Prim  did  not  keep  the  promises  he  gave  the  Republi- 
cans, it  was  solely  because  he  found  himself  utterly 
unable  to  overpower  the  influence  of  Serrano,  Topete, 
Zorrilla,  Sagasta,  Rivero,  and  their  followers. 

Who  does  not  remember  what  the  spectacle  was 
which  Spain  presented  to  Europe  in  1869-1870? 
The  Monarchical  Constitution  was  adopted  by  some- 
thinor  like  two  hundred  and  fifteen  votes  a^amst  sev- 
enty.  In  a  month's  time  martial  law  was  proclaimed 
consequent  on  Republican  risings.  Jerez,  Zaragoza, 
Barcelona,  Gracia,  Murcia,  Valencia  were  deluged  with 
blood.  And  when  so  much  had  been  done.  Prim 
thought  he  might  as  well  go  a  step  farther;  and  in 
October  he  publicly  declared  in  favor  of  monarchy. 
The  crown  of  Spain  was  now  being  offered,  much  as 
a  piece  of  forged  ancient  plate,  on  all  the  European 

*  This  phrase  was  subsequently  adapted  to  Spain  in  the  form 
of,  "  One  cannot  establish  a  republic  in  a  country  where  there 
are  no  Hepublicans,"  and  of  course  attributed  to  Prim.  But  he 
never  said  anything  of  the  sort,  for  he  knew  that,  notwithstand- 
ing all  the  manoeuvres  of  the  Monarchists  during  the  elections 
for  the  Constituent  Cortes,  there  were  over  three  hundred  thou- 
sand Republican  votes  recorded. 


286  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

markets.  Prince  Frederick  Charles  of  Prussia,  Prince 
George  of  Saxony,  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh,  and  the 
Archduke  Victor  of  Austria  were  about  the  first 
thought  ofj  but  soon  given  up  as  unobtainable.  Then 
came  Dora  Fernando  and  Dom  Luis  of  Portugal,  and 
the  young  Duke  of  Genoa  —  all  of  whom  refused. 
Then  a  prince,  whose  very  name  no  Spaniard  could 
either  pronounce  or  spell,  the  Hohenzollern,  with  the 
Franco-German  War  as  the  only  result  of  the  proposal. 
And  this  long  catalogue  does  not  include  the  candidates 
got  up  at  home  —  Alfonso,  Montpensier,  Espaitero, 
Prim,  and  even  some  children  of  Prim  and  Serrano, 
whom  it  was  proposed  to  wed  fii-st,  and  to  crown  after- 
wards. 

After  a  couple  of  years'  search,  the  Monarchists  found 
at  last  a  prince  amiable  enough  to  consent  to  come  to 
Spain,  and  to  give  a  trial  to  the  principle  of  really 
Constitutional  Monarchy  in  that  misgoverned  country. 
But  Prim  had  to  pay  with  liis  life  the  apparent  success 
of  his  long  and  sad  efforts  to  satisfy  the  Monarchists 
of  Spain  and  the  diplomatists  of  Europe.  And  it  will 
always  remain  the  glory  of  the  Republican  party  of 
Spain  that  Prim's  assassination  was  not  the  work  of 
any  fanatic  belonging  to  their  ranks,  but  the  fruit  of  the 
corruption  and  villany  of  the  very  same  men  for  whose 
sake  ho  threw  the  Republicans  overboard.  His  death 
has  thus  assumed  something  of  the  character  of  a  pun- 
ishment from  the  hand  of  inexorable  fate. 


PRIM  AND  AMADEO.  287 

The  declaration  that  the  Duke  d'Aosta  liad  consented 
to  ascend  the  Spanish  throne  did  not  in  the  least  set 
matters  right.  The  Republicans,  the  Alfonsists,  the 
Montpensierists,  the  Carlists,  all  were  equally  dissat- 
isfied ;  and  the  deputation  which  was  to  fetch  the  new 
sovereign  from  Florence  had  to  start  under  the  shelter 
of  night  lest  it  should  be  captured  and  prevented 
from  going.  On  Amadeo  and  his  family  leaving  Genoa, 
a  fearful  storm  —  a  bad  presage  for  any  man  that  might 
be  superstitious  —  caught  him,  and  the  first  news  which 
reached  him  on  the  Spanish  coast  was  that  Prim,  the 
man  who  made  a  king  of  him,  was  just  assassinated. 
Those  who  knew  the  prince,  who  were  aware  of  his 
having  been  an  admirer  of  patriots  like  Garibaldi  and 
Mazzini,  could  never  make  out  how  the  Duke  d'Aosta 
could  have  ever  accepted  a  crown  so  uncomfortably 
shaped,  and  so  heavily  stained  with  blood  and  mud. 
But  the  princij)le  of  "J  do  not  understand  the  conduct 
of  that  man;  show  me  his  woman,"  holds  equally  good 
in  the  analysis  of  a  prince's  actions  as  well  as  of  those 
of  a  pickpocket.  At  the  bottom  of  the  Duke  d'Aosta's 
apparent  inconsistency  was  his  spouse,  Maria-Victoria. 
When  quite  a  child  at  the  Convent  of  the  Sacre  Coeur, 
her  dreams  were  a  crown  ;  and  when  a  nun  told  her  one 
day  that  Mademoiselle  de  Montijo  had  '''•la  plus  belle 
couronne  du  monde'^''  put  on  her  head  as  a  reward  for 
her  having  been  always  a  devout  worshipper  of  our 
Lady  the  Virgin,  the  young  Princess  Pozzo  della 
Cisterna  adorned  her  breast  with  a  little  medal  in 
honor  of  Notre  Dame  des  Victoires,  and  began  daily 
and  nightly  praying  her  holy  patroness  to  give  a  crown 
to  the  little  Maria- Victoria.     There  can  be  little  doubt 


288  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

that  when  the  Duke  d'Aosta  found  himself  the  husband 
of  the  namesake  of  Notre  Dame  des  Victoh'es,  he  must 
haA^e  become  aware  of  the  asph*ation  of  his  young 
wife,  and,  a  chance  to  obtain  a  crown  having  presented 
itself,  Maria- Victoria  probably  used  all  her  influence 
that  it  should  not  be  lost. 

The  proposal  once  accepted,  Amadeo  was  too  noble 
and  brave  to  retreat.  He  saw  well  that  in  the  recep- 
tion the  land  of  Figaros  and  Don  JBasilios  was  sup- 
posed to  have  prepared  for  him,  nothing  but  official 
faces  came  to  salute  him  —  nothing  but  freezing  con- 
gratulations came  to  greet  him.  The  country  he  passed 
through,  the  capital  he  came  to  live  in,  looked  dumb 
and  stony,  and  he  must  have  felt  at  once  that  the  best 
he  could  say  of  himself  was,  that  he  was  going  to  be 
the  king  of  only  that  portion  of  Madnd  which  he 
might  assist  in  making  money,  either  in  trade  or  in 
office ;  but  by  no  means  of  the  whole  of  Madrid,  still 
less  of  Spain,  and  less  still  of  todas  las  Espanas.  In 
the  eyes  of  the  religious-minded  folk  of  the  country,  he 
was  not  only  an  intruder,  but  the  son  of  the  blasphe- 
mous and  excommunicated  Italian  who  trampled  under 
foot  the  dazzling  crown  of  the  holy  Peter.  He  thought 
a  journey  through  Ids  new  dominions  would,  perhaps, 
improve  his  position.  The  peasantry  would,  perhaps, 
like  him  after  having  seen  him;  and  so  he  started  on  a 
kind  of  exhibition  tour,  spending  a  lot  of  his  private 
money,  and  followed  by  Spanish  and  English  journal- 
ists, who  were  to  tell  the  world  that  everything  was 
getting  right  in  Sj)ain,  and  that  the  Carlists,  Isabelinos, 
Republicans,  and  Internationalists,  would  be  all  turning 
by  and  by  into  steady,  business-like  subjects  of  a  Con- 


PRIM  AND  AMADEO.  289 

stitutional  Monarchy.  FTc  returned  to  Madrid  perfectly 
conscious  that  he  had  not  achieved  much  by  his  jour- 
ney, but  still  he  did  not  finally  lose  his  hopes,  and  was 
willing  to  do  his  best  to  win  the  sympathies  of  the 
population  of  Madrid.  He  was  a  capital  horseman, 
and  he  showed  himself  every  day  on  horseback.  His 
wife  and  himself  drove  daily  on  the  Prado.  His  box 
at  the  opera  was  seldom  empty,  and  he  did  all  that  was 
in  his  power  to  laugh  at  the  national  zarzuela  as  heart- 
ily as  an}'^  true  Castilian.  Once  a  week,  at  least,  there 
were  also  a  banquet  and  a  ball  at  the  palace.  But, 
notwithstanding  all  these  efforts  of  being  and  looking 
amiable,  the  young  king  did  not  see,  except  his  min- 
isters, any  Spaniard  of  political  influence  showing  a 
desire  to  approach  him,  and  a  dull,  bitter  isolation 
seemed  still  to  remain  the  only  appanage  of  the  thorny 
crown.  The  royal  banquets  and  balls  were  never  at- 
tended by  any  one  except  diplomatists,  present  ex 
officio,  some  Spanish  liberals  ennobled  by  himself,  a 
few  politicians  looking  out  for  employment,  and  a  few 
bankers  anxious  to  decide  whether  they  should  tie  or 
loosen  the  strings  of  their  purses. 

The  queen  fared  even  worse.  In  the  first  place,  she 
did  not  always  share  the  political  views  of  her  hus- 
band ;  she  was  often  ill,  and  the  scandalous  gossip  of 
the  palace  coulisses  said  that  the  Duke  d'Aosta,  having 
inherited  certain  proclivities  of  his  father,  was  fond  of 
enjoying  ladies'  society  outside  of  his  house.  Besides 
all  that,  there  was  no  humiliation  which  the  female 
representatives  of  Spanish  nobility  did  not  inflict  upon 
the  young  queen.  One  day  at  the  Prado,  the  Parisian 
bonnets,  which  had  for  a  considerable  time  past  found 
19 


290  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

their  way  to  Madrid,  suddenly  disappeared,  and  the 
ancient  big  tortoise-shell  comb  and  the  national  man- 
tilla of  olden  days  were  revived  as  by  magic  order. 
The  noble  ladies  wanted  to  show  the  queen  that  they 
were  genuine  blue-blooded  l^spanolas^  and  that  she  was 
not.  On  another  occasion  the  insult  was  still  more 
pointed.  The  queen  had  a  baby,  and  asked  the  wife 
of  Marshal  Serrano,  as  the  highest  functionary  of  the 
kingdom,  to  hold  the  child  at  the  baptismal  font,  but 
met  with  a  refusal  under  the  pretence  of  the  lady's  ill- 
ness ;  yet  the  Duchess  de  la  Torre  showed  herself  in 
the  theatres,  and  good  care  was  taken  that  Amadeo 
should  know  that  the  duchess  refused  the  invitation 
because,  as  a  Creole,  she  felt  unable  to  give  her  sup- 
port to  a  sovereign  whose  views  were  obviously  calcu- 
lated to  ruin  all  the  Creoles  of  Cuba. 

Amadeo  got  sick  and  tired  of  all  that.  He  felt  also 
that  his  lifie  was  not  safe.  He  was  not  only  shot  at  by 
street  ruffians,  but  learned  —  as  he  subsequently  pub- 
licly declared  at  Lisbon  —  that  extensive  home  and 
foreign  conspiracies  were  plotted  against  his  life.  He 
saw,  on  the  other  hand,  from  the  accounts  jn-esented  to 
him  by  Dragonetti  (his  private  secretary  and  friend, 
whose  influence  as  an  Italian  was  so  much  objected  to 
by  the  Spaniards),  that  in  the  short  period  of  his  reiga 
he  had  spent  a  portion  of  his  own  and  his  wife's  for- 
tune, the  civil  list  not  being  very  large,  and  never 
regularly  remitted.  In  a  word,  the  king's  business  did 
not  pay.  He  got  out  of  it  neither  money,  nor  honor, 
nor  pleasure,  nor  the  satisfaction  of  honestly  performing 
the  duties  imposed  upon  him  by  his  constitutional  oath  ; 
and  he  resolved  to  abdicate.     But  to  carry  out  this 


PRIM  And  AMADEO:  291 

resolution  was  not  so  easy.  His  wife  would  not  take 
off  the  crown,  which  had  been  the  object  of  her  dreams 
since  her  childhood.  Domestic  troubles  came  thus  in 
addition  to  the  rest,  and  the  young  monarch  was  anx- 
iously watching  the  moment  when  he  could  carry  out 
his  intention  in  such  a  manner  as  not  to  be  stopped 
half  way.  When  in  November  and  December  of  the 
previous  year  insurrectionary  movements  broke  out  in 
Valencia,  in  Mjilaga,  in  Murcia,  and  several  other  places, 
a  propos  of  the  vote  of  a  new  levy,  and  when  the 
Carlists  began  to  make  progress  in  Catalonia  and  the 
Basque  provinces,  he  allowed  himself  to  be  again  per- 
suaded that  it  was  for  him  a  question  of  duty  and 
honor  to  remain  now  in  the  breach.  But  seeing  that 
even  the  spending  of  his  private  money  to  facilitate 
the  expedition  against  the  insurgents  and  the  Carlists 
did  not  in  any  way  improve  his  position,  he  took  the 
first  occasion  which  presented  itself  for  carrying  out 
his  former  intention.  Opposition  was  by  and  by 
brought  quite  home  to  him;  for  his  very  councillors 
and  ministers  plotted  measures  to  which  they  knew 
the  king  objected.  They  wished  to  impose  upon  him, 
amongst  other  things,  the  nomination  of  General  Hi- 
dalgo to  a  high  military  post.  That  general  was  held 
in  abhorrence  by  the  best  officers  of  the  army,  espe- 
cially so  by  the  artillery  corps.  Tlie  king  objected  to 
this  nomination  just  as  much  as  his  officers  did ;  and 
as  they  gave  in  their  resignations,  so  he  gave  in  his, 
though  of  course  he  was  personally  much  less  con- 
cerned in  the  appointment  of  one  more  objectionable 
individual  to  a  responsible  position.  But  Amadeo  was 
anxious  to  take  advantage  of  the   moment  when  his 


292  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

wife,  who  had  been  just  confined,  was  unable  to  inter- 
fere in  political  matters,  and  on  the  10th  of  February, 
1878,  at  eight  o'clock  at  night,  he  declared  to  Senor 
Ruiz  Zorrilla  his  final  resolution  to  abdicate.  On  the 
12th,  early  in  the  morning,  much  before  the  most 
pious  senoras  had  dressed  for  early  mass,  several  plain 
carriages  were  driving  the  royal  family  from  the  palace 
of  Madrid  to  the  railway  station.  The  queen  had  to 
be  borne  on  a  litter,  and  the  king  lifted  her  himself 
into  the  carriage.  A  few  deputies  and  a  regiment 
of  infantry  escorted  their  majesties  and  their  three 
children  to  the  frontier  of  Portugal,  and  the  vast 
majority  of  the  so-called  respectable  classes  throughout 
Europe  read  with  feelings  of  sincere  sorrow  the  decla- 
ration of  the  young  monarch  :  "  My  good  wishes  have 
deceived  me,  for  Spain  lives  in  the  midst  of  a  perpetual 
conflict.  If  my  enemies  had  been  foreigners,  I  would 
not  abandon  the  task,  but  they  are  Spaniards.  1  wish 
neither  to  be  king  of  a  party,  nor  to  act  illegally; 
but,  believing  all  my  efforts  to  be  sterile,  I  renounce 
the  crown  for  myself,  my  sons,  and  heirs."  On  the 
13th  the  royal  family  reached  Lisbon,  where  they 
remained  till  the  complete  restoration  of  the  queen's 
health,  and  proceeded  then  quietly  home,  and  nothing 
more  was  ever  heard  of  them  in  Spain.  They  had  not 
yet  left  the  palace  ere  a  republic  was  proclaimed,  the 
Senate  and  the  Congress  amalgamated  under  the  title 
of  "National  Assembly,"  presided  over  by  Seiior 
Martos,  and  a  new  ministry  was  seated  on  the  blue 
velvet  bench  of  the  Congreso  de  los  Diputados. 

In  fact,  abroad  the  abdication  of  the  king  of  Spain 
produced  by  far  a  stronger  impression   than   in   the 


PRIM  AND  AMADEO.  293 

country  itself.  In  England,  every  old  maid  was  la- 
menting the  dangers  to  which  the  wretched  Spaniards 
had  exposed  the  young  queen  "in  such  a  position"  — 
although  Spaniards  had  of  course  nothing  to  do  either 
with  the  "  position  "  or  the  exposure.  The  newspapers 
and  politicians  could  not  find  words  strong  enough  to 
express  their  indignation  at  a  nation  that  had  proved 
unable  to  appreciate  the  merits  of  a  truly  liberal  and 
chivalrous  sovereign,  and  the  chances  it  had  of  enjoy- 
ing the  blessing  of  constitutional  government.  In 
Germany  there  was  no  end  of  nebulous  speculations 
about  the  old  bugbear  of  a  Latin  Republican  federation 
as  opposed  to  the  Imperial  Teutonic  and  Sclavonic  fed- 
erations. The  king  of  Italy  began  to  be  courted  still 
more,  "a  Hohenzollern  prince"  began  again  to  be 
talked  of,  and  a  couple  of  men-of-war  had  secret  in- 
structions sent  to  them.  In  Paris,  where  I  happened 
to  be  at  that  time,  the  excitement  was  still  greater. 
M.  Thiers  repeated  several  times  that  he  ''  deplored  " 
Amadeo's  abdication  as  one  of  the  greatest  calamities 
that  could  have  occurred.  He  predicted  even  grave 
European  complications.  When  the  news  of  the  abdi- 
cation reached  the  Assembly  at  Versailles,  the  effect  it 
produced  upon  that  excitable  body  was  so  great  that 
Erench  business  with  its  Committee  of  Thirty  seemed 
to  be  quite  forgotten  for  the  moment.  The  Right 
seemed  just  as  delighted  as  the  Left;  for  the  former 
saw  at  once  a  chance  of  making  the  old  Legjitimist 
agitation  common  to  both  countries,  while  the  latter 
saw  another  field  open  for  the  propagation  of  the 
theories  of  "liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity."  Every 
French  Communist  lesiding  in  London  or  Geneva,  and 


294  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

having  a  chance  to  borrow  somewhere  a  ^qw  sovereigns, 
every  Polish  emigrant  residing  at  Paris,  rushed  at  once 
to  Madrid  in  the  anticipation  of  a  new  arena  of  activity 
being  soon  open  to  them  in  the  country  where  violence 
of  opinion  is  surpassed  only  by  ignorance.  On  the 
other  hand,  French  priests  and  old-fashioned  French 
noblemen,  usually  creeping  out  of  their  houses  hardly 
oftener  than  once  a  week,  were  for  several  days  rush- 
ing about  Paris  and  Versailles  as  if  they  had  shaken  a 
quarter  of  a  century  off  their  shoulders.  The  re-estab- 
lishment of  the  old  Catholic  and  Legitimist  Monarchy 
was  now  for  them  a  question  to  be  simultaneously 
worked  out  in  both  countries,  and  with  greater  energy 
than  ever.  Funds  began  at  once  to  be  subscribed,  if 
not  actually  collected,  to  improve  tlie  organization  of 
Don  Carlos'  army,  and  the  incognito  members  of  the 
Brotheihood  of  Jesus  w^ere  joyously  rubbing  their 
hands  in  anticipation  of  the  time  when  politics,  educa- 
tion, and  finances  would  be  in  both  countries  under 
their  care,  and  when  Franco-Spanish  money,  Franco- 
Spanish  diplomacy,  and  Franco-Spanish  arms  w^ould  be 
set  at  work  to  restore  the  temporal  power  of  the  pope 
at  Rome,  and  to  overthrow  the  father  of  that  young 
prince  who  had  just  abdicated.  The  opponents  of  these 
clerical  desperadoes  seemed,  on  the  othei^  hand,  to  be 
quite  as  confident  in  the  Jesuits  of  the  Spanish  events. 
I  could  not  better  formulate  their  views  than  by  re- 
peating the  words  said  to  me  by  a  Radical  deputy,  in 
whose  company  I  was  on  that  day  returning  from  Ver- 
sailles. "Well,  it  is  the  greatest  triumph  the  Repub- 
lican cause  could  ever  have  had  just  now.  The  only 
thing  we   want  to  complete  it   is,  that  Don   Carlos, 


PRIM  AND  AMADEO.  ^95 

Montj^ensier,  Alfonso,  and  all  that  lot  should  try  and 
get  into  Amadeo's  empty  bed  for  a  few  nights  each. 
They  would  be  sure  to  have  their  throats  cut,  and  our 
own  Bourbon  and  Orleans  questions  would  be  thus 
settled  at  once  in  the  most  comfortable  and  the  most 
speedy  way,  and  that  forever,  I  can  assure* you." 

But  to  unconcerned  observers,  who  have  no  business 
either  to  lament  political  events,  or  to  embark  in  risky 
political  speculations,  the  abdication  of  Amadeo  ap- 
peared in  a  somewhat  different  light.  In  the  first 
place,  it  was  clear  that  it  could  not  do  any  harm  to 
Spain.  The  reign  of  "Macaroni  I."  (as  Amadeo  was 
popularly  called)  was  simply  impossible.  He  was, 
perhaps,  the  best  stranger  that  could  be  found  for  the 
unhappy  throne ;  but  he  was  a  stranger,  and  that  was 
hastante.  The  mass  of  the  Spanish  people  cannot  stand 
even  a  shopkeeping  foreigner  on  their  soil.  What 
force  on  earth  could,  then,  make  them  stand  the  rule 
of  a  foreigner?  His  call  to  the  throne  was  an  absurd 
experiment,  and  the  sooner  it  ended  the  better  it  was. 
A  few  months  later  he  might,  perhaps,  not  have  been 
able  to  retire  into  private  life  as  safely  as  he  did  then. 
In  the  second  place,  the  statement  made  both  by  him- 
self and  by  his  admirers,  about  his  having  been  frus- 
trated in  all  his  attempts  to  reign  in  accordance  with 
the  constitution,  is  not  quite  correct.  There  was  a 
strong  opposition  against  him  —  that  is  true ;  but  is  not 
opposition  one  of  the  elements  of  constitutional  gov- 
ernment? The  queen  of  England  had,  for  a  good 
many  years,  to  approve  measures  which  were  certainly 
not  in  accordance  with  her  personal  tastes.  Yet  she 
does  not  abdicate  on  account  of  that.     She  feels  a  sat- 


296  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

isfaction  in  reigning;  she  sees  loyalty  and  affection; 
she  earns  honor  and  wealth.  Amadeo  had  nothing  of 
that;  he  had  to  stand  insults,  to  spend  his  own  and  his 
wife's  fortune,  and  to  run  the  risk  of  being  murdered 
some  day  into  the  bargain.  It  is,  therefore,  fair  to 
conclude  that  personal  considerations  had  much  more 
influenced  his  decision  than  his  reluctance  "to  be  the 
king  of  a  party,"  or  "  to  act  illegally."  The  believer 
in  hereditary  transmission  of  human  and  animal  pecu- 
liarities might  also  have  discovered  in  the  representa- 
tives of  the  Savoy  House  a  rather  general  proclivity  to 
get  soon  tired  of  the  exercise  of  royal  prerogative,  a 
considerable  number  of  princes  of  that  house  having 
abdicated  their  power,  and  some  of  them  on  very  slight 
provocation.  Amadeo  VIIL,  Emmanuel -Philibert^ 
Victor  Emmanuel  I.,  and  the  grandfather  of  Amadeo, 
Charles-Albert,  have  rendered  themselves  quite  cele- 
brated in  this  respect.  But  be  it  the  result  of  personal 
or  political  considerations,  be  it  the  manifestation  of 
an  inherited  tendency  or  a  purely  spontaneous  act, 
AmadeoV  abdication  had,  at  all  events,  one  most  valu- 
able element  in  it  —  the  element  of  progress.  Without 
speaking  of  times  more  distant  from  us,  when  massacres 
and  bloodshed  were  the  first  conditions  of  every  change 
of  dynasty  or  form  of  government,  in  our  own  times, — 
in  1830,  for  instance,  —  France  had  to  fight  for  three 
days  to  overthrow  a  rotten  dynasty.  In  1848  a  great 
improvement  is  already  to  be  noticed  ;  a  few  hours'  fight- 
ing of  a  few  hundred  men  is  quite  enough  to  make  a 
king  abdicate  and  run  away.  In  1870  the  thing  is  still 
more  conveniently  done  by  a  single  jump  of  a  gentle- 
man into  the  tribune,  and  a  vociferous  declaration  that 


PRIM  AND  AMADEO.  297 

the  dynasty  was  no  longer  reigning.  In  Spain,  in 
1868,  several  thousand  people  had  to  be  killed  before 
the  country  could  get  rid  of  an  unsuitable  queen,  while 
four  years  later  a  few  minutes'  conversation  with  his 
minister  is  sufficient  to  make  a  king  put  on  his  travel- 
ling costume,  lock  and  book  his  portmanteau,  and  take 
the  train  as  quietly  as  if  he  were  a  recalled  newspaper 
correspondent.  Thanks  to  the  peaceful  nature  of  the 
arrangement,  there  were  neither  conquerors-  nor  con- 
quered in  Spain  in  February,  1873.  Not  a  single  bar- 
ricade had  been  erected ;  not  a  single  pane  of  glass 
or  lamp  smashed.  Everything  went  on  incomparably 
more  quietly  than  an  election  meeting  in  England.  Yet 
the  question  was  not  one  between  sending  a  Conserva- 
tive Liberal  or  a  Liberal  Conservative  to  St.  Stephen's, 
but  one  of  upsetting  the  whole  governmental  fabric, 
established  with  such  difficulty  a  couple  of  years  pre- 
vious. Is  it  not  an  improvement  —  a  progress  truly 
characteristic  of  the  beautiful  times  we  are  living  in  ? 

The  example  which  the  young  King  Amadeo  has 
given  to  his  brother-sovereigns  is  not  one  likely  to  be 
imitated.  But  the  fact  that  the  king  of  Spain  has 
abdicated  instead  of  sending  out  troops  on  the  intima- 
tion that  people  did  not  require  him,  ought  to  be  a 
subject  for  serious  meditation  to  some  of  his  colleagues. 
It  was  certainly  an  act  characteristic  of  a  thorough, 
well-bred  gentleman,  almost  a  chivalrous  act,  and  as 
such  fairly  deserving  imitation. 

The  best  proof  how  short  were  the  roots  the  young 
Italian  prince  j)lanted  into  Spanish  soil  and  Spanish 
hearts  during  his  twenty-five  months'  reign,  can  be 
seen  from  tlie  fact  that  a  few  days  after  his  departure 


298  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

his  very  name  seemed  to  have  been  forgotten.  Madrid, 
the  city  where  everybody  seems  to  talk  at  the  same 
time,  and  to  do  notliing  but  talk,  had  neither  a  word 
of  gratitude  nor  a  word  of  blame  for  Amadeo.  If  you 
attempted  to  bring  the  conversation  on  him,  his  reign 
and  his  abdication,  you  heard  invariably  an  abrupt  sen- 
tence like  tbis :  "  He  was  a  stranger,  and  could  not  even 
properly  speak  Spanish;"  "He  brought  a  lot  of  Ital- 
ians with  him;"  "He  was  a  pretty  good  fellow,  but 
had  no  business  to  come  here;"  and  so  on,  according 
to  the  individual  disposition  of  the  person  you  talked 
to.  During  the  first  days  immediately  following 
liis  departure,  the  always  pleasure-thirsty  Madrilenas 
seemed  to  get  shy  and  to  apprehend  street  rows.  At 
all  events,  the  most  fashionable  habituees  of  the  after- 
noon paseos  and  the  theatres  were  not  to  be  seen. 
But  in  about  a  week's  time  Madrid  life  took  its  habit- 
ual course,  and  the  Carnival  following  close  upon  the 
pacific  revolution  was  as  jolly  as  ever.  The  land  which 
had  taught  Europe  so  many  excellent  lessons  in  olden 
times,  and  which  stood  once  at  the  head  of  civilization, 
seemed  to  revive  once  more,  to  try  and  do  again  some- 
thing that  was  worth  while  imitating.  Smoothly, 
gently,  without  shedding  a  drop  of  blood,  it  changed 
the  whole  of  its  governmental  system,  and  people  who 
had  never  heard,  speak  of  Spain  otherwise  than  as  a 
land  of  brigands  and  assassins  stood  amazed  at  the 
sight  offered  to  them.  Yet  two  governments  only  — 
the  United  States  and  the  Swiss  —  recognized  the  new 
republic,  and  encouraged  the  efforts  of  its  leaders  and 
of  its  people.  All  the  others  remained  sulky,  and  sent 
out  men-of-war  to  the  coast  of  the  enchanted  land,  of 
the  ruin  of  which  they  alone  had  been  guilty. 


ALFONSISM  VERSUS  CARLJSM.  299 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

ALFONSISM  VERSUS  CARLISM. 

THE  abdication  of  Amadeo,  whatever  may  have 
been  the  view  of  European  politicians  upon  it, 
had  one  great  advantage  for  Spain,  besides  that  of 
freeing  the  throne  from  a  sovereign  about  whom  peo- 
ple did  not  care ;  it  reduced  the  number  of  persons 
who  thought  themselves  entitled  to  govern  Spain,  and 
consequently  destroyed  a  corresponding  number  of 
j^olitical  parties.  As  long  as  Amadeo  was  king,  there 
were,  besides  him,  Don  Alfonso,  the  Duke  of  Mont- 
pensier,  and  Don  Carlos,  each  of  them  having  a  party, 
and  entertaining  the  hope  of  coming  some  day  to  power. 
When  he  abdicated,  Montpensier,  whose  claims  were 
never  based  upon  any  legal  right  to  the  throne,  saw 
too  clearly  how  little  chance  there  was  for  a  foreigner 
to  govern  Spain,  and  he  wisel}^  gave  up  all  further  idea 
of  changing  his  position  of  a  wealthy  Seville  naranjero 
(orange-merchant,  as  he  is  called),  for  that  of  a  crowned 
target  for  Republican  marksmen.  In  February,  1873, 
Spain  got  thus  at  the  same  lime  rid  of  Amadeo  and  of 
Montpensier,  of  the  Amadeists  and  the  Montpensierists, 
and  has  now  to  deal  only  with  the  young  Alfonso  and 
Don  Carlos.  Let  us  see  here  what  are  the  respective 
rights  of  the  two  remaining  pretenders  to  the  throne. 


300  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

In  ancient  times,  the  legislation  upon  the  succession 
to  the  throne  in  Spain  was  as  confused  as  all  legisla- 
tion in  an  early  stage  of  ci\dlization  must  necessarily 
be,  and  such  laws  as  existed  then  remained  in  the 
glorious  state  of  non-codification  prevailing  up  to  the 
present  time  in  the  otherwise  beautiful  and  well-regu- 
lated British  isles.  In  this  way  anything  like  a  serious 
reference  to  the  Spanish  law  of  succession  must  be  out 
of  the  question  ;  but  some  points  in  connection  with 
this  subject  can  be  stated  easily  enough. 

The  ancient  monarchy  of  the  Goths,  to  which  the 
invasion  of  the  Moors  put  an  end,  was  an  elective  one, 
both  male  and  female  sovereigns  being  admitted  to  the 
throne.  While  the  Moors  retained  still  in  their  pos- 
session the  brightest  and  richest  parts  of  the  Peninsula, 
in  its  northern  and  less  accessible  regions,  several  in- 
dependent kingdoms  sprang  up,  and  were  known  as 
Asturias,  Navarre,  Aragon,  Catalonia,  &c.  In  all  these 
kingdoms  there  appears  nevei-  to  have  been  any  settled 
theory  as  to  succession  ;  but  sure  it  is  that  women  were 
not  excluded  from  the  inheritance  to  the  throne  for  we 
see  them  frequently  occupying  it.  But  as  sovereigns 
were  then  rather  proprietors  than  managers  of  their 
kingdoms,  it  often  happened  that  two  distinct  kingdoms 
were  united  by  the  marriage  of  their  sovereigns.  So,  for 
instance,  the  queen  of  Castile,  Dona  Elvira,  was  married 
to  the  king  of  Navarre,  Don  Sancho,  and  the  two  king- 
doms seem  to  have  been  amalgamated.  BermudoIII, 
king  of  Leon,  dying  without  male  heirs,  his  daughter 
Dona  Sancha  inherited  his  throne,  and  having  married 
Ferdinand  I.,  king  of  Castile,  those  two  kingdoms  were 
also  united,  and  so  on.     The  Cortes,  the  magnates,  and 


ALFONSISM  VERSUS   CARLISM.  301 

the  people  of  the  various  kingdoms  seldom  presented 
any  objection  to  swearing  allegiance  to  female  sover- 
eigns. They  at  all  events  accepted  Isabel  the  Catholic, 
and  subsequently  her  two  daugliters.  In  1475  the 
Cortes  of  Castile  had  even  the  question  of  succession 
under  direct  discussion,  and  declared  that  according  to 
the  law  and  usages  immemorial,  the  female  heirs  had 
the  riglit  of  inheritance  to  the  throne  in  the  absence  of 
male  heirs.  Their  declaration  concluded  with  the 
proclamation  that  La  Infanta  Dona  Isabel  era  la 
verdadera  heredera  del  trono  y  que  a  ella  sola  corre- 
spondia  gohernar  el  Estado. 

The  Cortes  of  Aragon  seems  to  have  been  the  only 
one  which  has  occasionally  refused  to  be  governed  by 
a  woman ;  at  all  events,  when  Doiia  Isabel,  daughter 
of  Ferdinand  and  Isabel  the  Catholic,  was  proposed  as 
heir-apparent,  they  declined  to  accept  her,  but  on  her 
death  they  accepted  a  son  of  hers,  Don  Miguel.  Yet 
even  this  refusal  of  the  Aragon  Cortes  seems  to  have 
been  the  result  of  mere  inconsistency,  for  they  were 
undoubtedly  governed  by  a  female,  Doiia  Petronila, 
who  had,  by  her  marriage  with  the  reigning  Count  of 
Barcelona,  united  the  thrones  of  Catalonia  and  Aragon. 
The  Aragon  Cortes  subsequently  recognized  also  Dona 
Juana  la  Loca  (the  Mad),  daughter  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabel.  As  to  Navarre,  it  is  well  known  that  female 
sovereigns  were  admitted  to  that  throne,  for  it  was 
through  the  marriage  of  Doiia  Juana,  daughter  of 
Don  Enrique,  to  Philippe  the  Handsome,  that  the 
crowns  of  France  and  Navarre  became  for  a  while 
united. 

Thus  the  Carlist  assertion  that  the  Salic  law  is  a 


302  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

fundaraeiital  law  of  ancient  Spain  is  thoroughly  false, 
and  even  the  denomination  of  that  law  in  Spanish  his- 
tory as  I^ey  JN'ueva^  proves  that  there  was  formally 
another  law,  which  was  neither  Nueva  nor  Salic.  In 
fact,  the  Salic  law  was  first  introduced  in  Spain  by  Felipe 
V.  in  1713,  and  under  the  following  circumstances  :  — 
The  throne  of  Spain  passed,  after  the  death  of  Fer- 
dinand and  Isabel,  to  their  second  daughter.  Dona 
Juana,  married  to  the  Ezherzog  Philip  of  Austria. 
The  succession  of  Carlos  I.  (or,  according  to  the  Ger- 
man reckoning,  V.),  Felipe  II.,  III.,  and  IV.,  and  of 
Carlos  II.,  presented  no  difficulties,  as  tliere  was  always 
a  son  to  take  the  place  of  the  father.  But  Carlos  II. 
liad  no  children,  and  with  him  terminated  the  so-called 
Asturian  dynasty  in  Spain,  the  throne  passing,  after  all 
sorts  of  home  as  well  as  of  foreign  disputes,  to  the 
second  grandson  of  Maria  Theresa,  sister  of  Carlos  II., 
married  to  Louis  XIV.  The  young  prince,  bearing  in 
France  the  title  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  ascended  the 
Spanish  throne  under  the  name  of  Felipe  V.  That 
was  about  the  greatest  curse  that  could  have  befallen 
the  unhappy  Peninsula,  for  the  accession  of  the  French 
prince  to  the  Spanish  throne  aroused  the  jealousy  of 
England,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  armed  against 
Spain  the  Austrian  House  and  the  House  of  Savoy, 
both  of  which  considered  themselves  entitled  to  that 
throne  throuGjh  marriag^e  alliances  concluded  two  or 
three  generations  back.  This  quarrel  culminated  in 
what  is  known  as  the  War  of  Succession,  so  much  cele- 
brated for  a  general  ruin  and  slaughter,  lasting  over 
twelve  years,  and  concluded  by  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht, 
and  the  final  establishment  of  Felipe  V.  as  the  founder 


ALFONSISM   VERSUS   CARL  ISM.  303 

of  the  dynasty  of  Spanish  Bourbons.  At  the  same 
time  the  new  king  renounced,  by  that  treaty,  for  him- 
self and  his  descendants,  all  rights  to  the  throne  of 
France. 

Felipe  Y.,  who  by  that  time  had  become  very  popu- 
lar in  Spain,  was  anxious  —  since  he  had  lost  all  pros- 
pects of  the  French  throne  —  at  least  firmly  to  preserve 
the  possession  of  the  Spanish  one  in  the  hands  of  his 
dynasty,  corfceived  the  plan  of  changing  the  law  of 
succession,  by,  if  not  wholly  excluding  women  from  the 
inheritance,  at  all  events  restricting  their  rights.^*  In 
this  way  the  brothers  of  the  king  had  preference  given 
to  them  over  his  daughters.  Everybody  in  Europe, 
and  especially  in  England,  expressed  great  delight 
at  this  arrangement,  as  it  considerably  lessened  the 
chances  of  the  Spanish  throne  falling  under  the  influ- 
ence of  some  foreign  power  through  the  marriage  of  a 
female  heir.  There  were  still  apprehensions  among 
European  politicians  that  in  two  or  three  generations 
France  might  conclude  a  marriage  with  a  queen  of 
Spain,  and  the  outside  world's  ears  be  once  more 
shocked  by  the  exclamation,  11  n'y  a  plus  de  Pyrenees! 
(which,  after  all,  was  but  a  snobbish  boast).  But  one 
of  the  most  curious  points  in  the  whole  affair  is,  that 
while  England  exerted  all  her  efforts  to  have  the  Salic 
law  established  in  Spain  in  1713,  some  hundred  and 
tvventy  years  later  (1833)  no  end  of  English  lives  and 

*  The  new  law  seems  to  have  been  remarkably  badly  com- 
posed. An  able  Spanish  lawyer,  Senor  Montoliu,  shows  that 
while  some  provisions  of  it  give  preference  to  male  over  female 
heirs  in  the  direct  line  of  descent,  others  increased  the  rights 
and  chances  of  distant  female  relatives  in  lateral  lines. 


304  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

English  money  was  wasted  for  the  sake  of  having  it 
abolished  again,  and  a  female  baby  two  years  old  put 
upon  the  throne  in  preference  to  a  grown-up  man. 
Another  not  less  amusing  circumstance  was  that  Felipe 
v.,  by  the  introduction  of  the  new  order  of  inheritance, 
abolished  those  very  laws  in  accordance  with  which  he 
himself  had  become  king  at  all ;  for  it  was  from  his 
grandmother,  a  female  lieir  to  Carlos  II.,  that'he  inher- 
ited the  crown.  For  our  present  purpose,  however, 
three  other  points  of  this  mischievous  alteration  of  the 
law  of  succession  are  of  importance. 

First.  That  the  JSruevo  Heglamento^  or  JLey  N'ueva, 
was  made  in  a  French,  not  in  the  usual  Spanish  man- 
ner. It  was  first  issued  and  then  notified  to  the  Cortes. 
It  was  a  mere  auto  acordado^  a  decree  octroy e  a  la 
Frangaise^  not  a  law  proposed  to,  and  discussed  and 
passed  by,  the  Cortes  in  the  way  usual  in  Spain. 

Second.  That  since  the  right  of  thus  changing  the 
fundamental  law  of  succession  is  recognized  to  P'elipe 
v.,  there  is  no  reason  for  not  recognizing  it  to  Carlos 
IV.  and  Ferdinand  VII.,  who  subsequently  rechanged 
it  again  for  the  old  one  ;  and 

Third.  That  if  the  Nuevo  Heglamento  be  accepted, 
its  distinct  provision  that  the  heir  to  the  throne  should 
be  born  and  educated  in  Spain  or  in  Spanish  domin- 
ions should  be  strictly  agreed  to. 

These  three  j^oints  comj^letely  invalidate  all  the 
claims  of  the  present  Pretender,  Don  Carlos.  He  de- 
clares that  his  rights  are  based  on  the  fundamental 
laws  of  the  country,  while  they  are  based  in  reality 
upon  a  mere  decree  of  Felipe  V.  He  declares  the  prag- 
matic sanction  of  Carlos  IV.  (of  1789),  made  public 


ALFONSISM  VERSUS   CARL  ISM.  305 

by  Ferclinand  YIT.  in  1830,  to  be  illegal,  while  in  fact 
it  was  much  more  legally  issued  than  the  Nuevo  He- 
glamento.  And  finally,  if  the  law  of  Felipe  Y.  be  ac- 
cepted, its  provision  that  the  heir  to  the  throne  should 
be  born  and  educated  in  Spain  excludes  Don  Carlos 
from  succession^  for  he  was  born  and  educated  in  Aus- 
tria. 

But  these  are  not  all  the  reasons  invalidating  the 
rights  of  Don  Carlos.  There  are  some  more.  The 
Pretender,  known  as  Charles  Y.,  after  the  close  of  the 
Seven  Years'  War  was  interned  in  Bourges,  and  abdi- 
cated his  rights  in  favor  of  his  son,  Count  de  Monte- 
molin  (Charles  YI.).  He  had  two  sons  besides  that, 
Don  Juan  and  Don  Fernando.  When  the  Carlist  at- 
tempt took  place,  in  1860,  at  San  Carlos  de  la  Kapita, 
Don  Carlos  and  Don  Fernando  were  captured,  and 
were  about  to  be  shot;  but  their  lives  were  spared 
upon  the  understanding  that  they  should  sign  the  abdi- 
cation of  their  pretensions,  which  they  did  on  the  23d 
of  April  of  the  same  year  at  Tortosa,  though  they 
afterwards  disavowed  this  abdication.  The  third 
brother,  Don  Juan,  who  did  not  take  part  in  that 
attempt,  and  who  might  therefore  have  some  semblance 
of  right  to  the  claims  of  his  father  and  his  eldest 
brother,  first  seemed  disposed  to  assert  it,  but  subse- 
quently, in  1863,  renounced  his  rights  in  favor  of  Isa- 
bella. In  this  way  the  claims  of  every  one  of  the  Pre- 
tenders ought  to  be  considered  as  having  been  finally 
settled,  and  so  matters  stood  till  1868,  when  Isabella 
fled,  and  Don  Juan  all  at  once  launched  another  abdi- 
cation of  the  claims  he  had  renounced  already.  This 
time  it  was  in  favor  of  Don  Carlos,  his  son,  a  young 
20 


306  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

man  of  twenty  years  of  age,  and  now  the  Pretender. 
From  whatever  point,  therefore,  we  look  upon  the  new 
Don  Carlos,  he  cannot  make  good  anything  like  a  sem- 
blance of  rights  to  the  throne.  And  if  there  is  any 
person  at  all  entitled  to  it,  it  is  undoubtedly  the  eldest 
son  of  Isabella,  in  whose  favor  she  formally  abdicated, 
in  Paris,  on  the  27th  of  June,  1870.  The  only  objec- 
tion to  the  rights  of  the  young  Don  Alfonso,  which  the 
Carlists  and  the  Republicans  were  at  all  capable  of 
ever  bringing  forward,  was  that  the  legitimacy  of  his 
birth  was  doubtful.  But  this  is  evidently  no  argu- 
ment, since  Isabella's  husband  never  repudiated  him, 
and  since,  after  all,  it  was  she,  and  not  Don  Francisco 
d'Assise,  that  was  the  sovereign ;  and  the  fact  of  the 
young  prince  being  her  son  has  never  been  questioned.* 

But  if  it  is  thus  easy  enough  to  express  one's  opinion 
as  to  the  respective  rights  of  the  two  Pretenders,  it  is 
by  no  means  equally  easy  to  say  which  of  them  (if  any) 
is  more  likely  to  more  or  less  permanently  establish 
his  dynasty  on  the  Spanish  throne.  And  the  reasons 
for  hesitating  to  give  a  definite  answer  on  this  point 
are  manifold. 

To  begin  with,  Don  Alfonso,  the  Prince  of  Asturias, 
is  barely  eighteen  years  old,  having  been  born  in  No- 

*  Truly  speaking,  however,  none  of  the  living  Spanish  princes 
have  any  right  whatever  to  the  throne  of  that  country,  if  the 
succession  law  of  Felipe  V.,  who  was  the  head  of  the  whole  of 
this  dynasty,  were  in  any  way  complied  with ;  for  Charles  IV". 
was  born  and  educated  in  Naples,  and  consequently  had  no  right 
to  reign  in  Spain ;  and  if  he  had  no  right  to  reign,  so  neither 
Ferdinand  VIl.,  nor  any  of  his  brothers,  nor  Isabella,  nor  the 
young  Alfonso,  have  ever  had  any  right  either. 


ALFOJ^SISM   VERSUS   CARLISM.  307 

vember,  1857.  His  mother  is  not  a  woman  likely  to  let 
him  go  to  Spain  without  trying  to  go  there  herself;  and 
her  arrival  would  be  a  signal  for  a  new  revolution.  She 
persisted  in  not  surrendering  her  crown  for  nearly  two 
years  after  she  had  been  overthrown,  and  events,  as 
well  as  friends  or  foes,  were  equally  clearly  demonstrat- 
ing to  her  every  day  that  her  reign  was  no  longer  pos- 
sible. She  yielded  only  to  the  advice  and  remon- 
strances of  Napoleon,  and  this  not  before  she  had  seen 
that  Spaniards  had  made  up  then'  minds  rather  to  have 
a  foreign  prince  than  to  run  the  risk  of  seeing  her  and 
her  camarilla  back  again  at  Madrid.  It  will  be  almost 
impossible  to  tear  away  a  young  prince  of  eighteen  years 
of  age  from  his  mother.  Since  lie  has  been  called  to 
the  country,  his  family  will  have  to  be  admitted  too, 
and  in  a  few  months  Madrid  will  have  the  king  and 
his  friends;  Dona  Isabel  and  her  party;  Dona  Christina 
and  her  party  ;  the  Duke  of  Montpensier  and  his  party; 
and  so  on,  with  the  Republicans  and  Carlists  of  various 
shades  in  the  background.  And  we  know  only  too 
w^ell  what  that  would  have  meant. 

When  Montpensier,  a  deadly  enemy  of  Isabella, 
saw,  a  few  years  ago,  that  he  had  not  only  no  chance  of 
seizing  the  crown,  but  that  he  could  not  get  even  as  a 
deputy  into  the  Cortes,  having  been  beaten  at  the 
elections  in  Asturias,  he  began  to  try  a  reconciliation 
with  Isabella  with  a  view  to  a  prospective  regency. 
The  negotiations  were  painful  and  difficult.  Plad  they 
been  carried  out  more  successfully,  and  peace  between 
the  two  parties  concluded  sooner,  Don  Alfonso  might 
have  been  proclaimed  in  1873.  Keeping  in  view  that 
money  can  do  anything  in   Spanish  politics,  and  that 


308  SPAIN  AND  THE   SPANIuiRDS. 

the  Conservatives  are  the  only  party  that  have  plenty 
of  it,  the  occasion  may  be  considered  as  having  been 
a  very  favorable  one  at  that  moment,  and  if  it  was 
missed,  it  was  so  on  account  of  personal  difficulties  be- 
tween Montpensier  and  Isabella.  It  was  only  just 
before  Amadeo's  departure  from  Spain  that  they  con- 
cluded an  alliance  on  the  basis  of  a  prospective  mar- 
riage betw^een  Don  Alfonso  and  the  youngest  daughter 
of  Montpensier.  The  ex-queen  was  to  give  up  all 
political  interference,  and  the  duke  to  become  the  re- 
gent till  the  majority  of  his  -nephew.  Measures  were 
at  once  taken  to  work  the  country  in  this  direction  ; 
large  amounts  of  money  w^eie  prepared  for  emergen- 
cies ;  the  foreign  courts  were  influenced  through  the 
Orleans  princes  and  their  party,  many  of  the  members 
of  which  were  among  the  French  ambassadors  in  vari- 
ous countries.  M.  Thiers  was  worked  in  the  same 
direction,  and  apparently  secured  to  the  Alfonso  cause, 
w^hile  Duke  d'Auinale  and  the  Count  of  Paris  showed 
their  disposition  to  accomplish  in  the  London  money- 
market  what  their  credit  was  able  to  do.  The  post- 
ponement of  the  recognition  of  the  Spanisli  republic 
by  the  European  powers  was  to  a  considerable  extent 
ciedited  by  the  members  of  the  party  to  the  work  they 
had  been  doing. 

But  presently  new  difficulties  arose  between  Isabella' 
and  her  brother-in-law.  It  was  understood,  it  appears, 
in  the  original  arrangement,  that  Marfori  and  all  the 
rest  of  the  entourage  of  the  ex-queen  would  be  put 
aside.  Christina  was  quite  on  Montpensier's  side  in 
this  case ;  but  the  bed-chamber  camarilla  of  Isabella 
had  so  influenced  her  within  a  few  weeks,  that  this  con- 


ALFONSISM  VERSUS   CARLISM.  309 

clilion  was  completely  disregarded.  And  as  Montpen- 
sier  greatly  insisted  upon  it,  and  showed  a  disposition 
to  inquire  closely  into  the  private  life  of  his  sister-in- 
law,  the  compact  was  broken  before  it  had  time  to  bear 
any  fruit  whatsoever. 

While  these  negotiations  went  on,  I  happened  to  be 
in  Paris,  and  to  have  now  and  then  some  information 
of  what  was  going  on  in  the  Bazilefsky  Hotel,  and 
from  what  I  heard  then,  I  must  conclude  that  notwith- 
standing all  the  accusations  that  had  been  always 
brought  against  Queen  Christina,  she  is,  upon  the  whole, 
a  much  more  reasonable  and  probably  a  better  woman 
than  her  daughter.  She  undoubtedly  liked  power  and 
money.  But  who  does  not?  She  was  at  all  events 
sufficiently  affectionate  to  sometimes  sacrifice  ambition 
to  love,  and  whenever  something  was  demonstrated  to 
her,  she  proved  capable  of  understanding  it  and  of  act- 
ing accordingly.  In  Isabella  little  was  to  be  seen  of  any- 
thing of  the  sort.  While  she  was  said  to  change  her 
lovers  as  frequently  as  she  changed  ministers,  and  dur- 
ing the  whole  of  her  reign  certainly  never  thought  of 
anything  but  her  purse  and  her  confessor,  Christina, 
even  in  the  worst  days  of  her  despotism,  was  sometimes 
able  to  forget  everything  except  the  feelings  of  her 
woman's  heart.  When  the  revolt  of  La  Granja  broke 
out,  she  valiantly  resisted  all  the  insults  and  violence 
of  her  own  body-guards,  when,  breaking  into  her  bed- 
room, with  arms  in  their  hands,  they  asked  her  to  sign 
the  constitution.  It  was  only  when  Sergeant  Garcia 
dragged  her  out  in  a  chemise  into  the  court-yard,  and 
showed  her  the  man  she- loved  kneeling  close  to  the 
wall  and  about  to  be  shot,  that  she  cried  out,  "  Stop ! 
I  sign." 


310  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

At  home  as  well  as  abroacl,  Christina  was  constantly 
abused  for  her  private  life,  and  ^'-puta'^'^  was  the  abom- 
inable name  by  which  she  was  called  by  her  own  sol- 
diers. But  what  did  she  in  reality?  She  was  married 
at  twenty-three  to  a  disgusting  man  of  forty-five,  who 
had  already  had  three  wives.*  She  lived  friendly  with 
him,  bore  him  two  children,  and  was  left  a  widow  at 
twenty-seven.  She  was  a  Neapolitan  woman,  w^ith  the 
blood  of  her  country  in  her  veins,  and  fell  in  love  with 
Ferdinand  Munoz,  one  of  the  most  handsome  of  her 
guardsmen.  It  has  not  been  proved  that  she  ever 
committed  adultery,  and  her  husband  would  probably 
not  have  left  her  in  possession  of  power  after  his  death 
if  he  had  had  reason  to  believe  that  she  had  done  so. 
A  couple  of  months  after  Ferdinand's  death  Christina 
secretly  married  Munoz,  and  the  shortness  of  the  inter- 
val between  the  death  of  the  first  husband  and  the 
second  marriage  is  the  only  thing  that  can  be  objected 
to.  Some  ten  years  later  the  marriage  was  publicly 
sanctioned  by  a  royal  decree,  Munoz  became  Duke  of 
Rianzares ;  the  couple  had  several  children,  and  lived 
as  friendly  as  any  married  people  do.  The  old  lady  is 
now  seventy  years  of  age,  and  is  certainly  as  active, 
intelligent,  and  energetic  as  her  daughter,  who  is  not 

*  The  three  former  wives  of  Ferdinand  VII.  were  a  Princess 
of  Sicily,  a  Princess  of  Portugal,  and  a  Princess  of  Saxony. 
The  latter  died  under  circumstances  which  created  some  sen- 
sation. He  had  children  by  none  of  them,  and  married  Princess 
Maria  Christina,  daughter  of  the  King  of  the  Two  Sicilies, 
without  ever  having  seen  her,  simply  because  the  Neapolitan 
house  was  reputed  to  be  very  prolific.  The  marriage  took  place 
in  November,  1829,  and  eleven  months  later  Isabella  was  born. 


ALFONSISM    VERSUS   CARLISM.  311 

yet  fifty;  and  the  mother  is  surely  less  priest-ridden. 
It  would  be  absurd  to  say  that  Christina  made  a  proper 
use  of  power  when  she  held  it;  but  sure  it  is  that  had 
Isabella  better  listened  to  her  advice  after  she  attained 
maturity,  she  might  have  still  preserved  her  crown. 

But  to  return  to  our  subject.  The  difficulties  stand- 
ing in  the  way  of  Don  Alfonzo  are  not  restricted  to 
his  family  affairs  only.  Plis  chief  drawback  is,  that  he 
has  no  popular  party  to  support  him,  though  he  un- 
doubtedly possesses  a  powerful  political  party.  Among 
the  people,  properly  speaking,  he  has  partisans  only  in 
the  shopkeeping  class  of  some  of  the  large  cities,  people 
who  will  not  either  move  for  him,  or  sacrifice  a  peseta. 
The  country  folks  at  large  are  either  Republicans  or 
Carlists,  or  perfect  indifferents.  There  is  no  end  to 
small  boroughs  often  and  twenty  thousand  inhabitants, 
chiefly  of  the  agricultural  class,  in  which  all  your  efforts 
to  ascertain  the  political  color  of  the  place  are  met 
with  the  invariable  reply,  "  In  esta  pohlacion  no  tene- 
mos  opinio7i  ninguna  ;  "  that  is  to  say,  that  the  people 
there  don't  care  about  anybody  or  any  form  of  govern- 
ment, provided  they  are  left  in  peace,  and  taxes  — 
especially  the  contrihucion  de  sangre^  the  blood-tax  or 
conscription  —  are  not  increased.  In  this  way  Don 
Alfonso  can  really  reckon  only  upon  the  array,  upon  a 
group  of  politicians  (some  of  them,  it  must  be  said, 
very  influential  and  experienced),  and  upon  a  floating 
mass  of  empleados.  And  it  remains  to  be  seen  whether 
the  progress  which  Republican  ideas  have  made  all 
throughout  the  peninsula  will  not  prove  by  far  to  ex- 
ceed all  the  influence  his  party  possess. 

Don  Carlos,  on  the  other  hand,  while  he  has  undoubt- 


312  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

edly  the  popular  support  of  at  least  one  million  of 
men  in  the  various  provinces,  has  no  political  party  to 
back  him.  He  lias  also  neither  the  support  of  the 
European  courts,  nor  the  money  which  Alfonso  can 
command ;  and  the  men  who  surround  him  are  not  at 
all  likely  to  possess  the  statesman-like  abilities  the 
Alfonso  party  is  credited  with.  The  political  and  reli- 
gious theories  Don  Carlos  is  supposed  to  represent  — 
though  they  are  somewhat  exaggerated — are  certainly 
not  of  a  nature  to  win  the  sympathies  either  of  the 
majority  of  the  Spaniards  or  of  the  world  outside. 
There  must,  therefore,  evidently  be  a  deadly  struggle 
between  Alfonsism  and  Carlism  before  anything  is 
settled  in  Spain.  The  most  likely  result  of  this  strug- 
gle is,  in  my  opinion,  that  both  parties  will  ultimately 
succumb,  making  room  for  a  firmly-established  repub- 
lic. But  I  prefer  giving  on  this  point  the  opinion  of 
more  competent  judges  than  myself.  Here  is,  as  nearly 
as  possible,  what  Senor  Figueras  —  undoubtedly  one 
of  the  most  acute  and  enlightened  judges  of  Spanish 
politics  —  told  me  during  one  of  the  conversations  I 
bad  with  him  at  Madrid. 

"  For  me,"  said  Senor  Figuerns,  "  there  is  only  one 
Conservative  party  in  Spain  —  that  of  Don  Alfonso. 
It  is  the  only  one  which  has  some  real  root  in  the  coun- 
try, and  which  counts  in  its  ranks  really  able  men. 
The  Carlists  look,  of  course,  more  active  and  more  dan- 
gerous ;  and  so  they  are,  perhaps.  But  we  know,  if 
strangers  do  not,  that  Carlism  means  in  reality  Don 
Alfonso  much  more  than  it  does  Don  Carlos.  Old 
Elio,  for  instance,  knows  better  than  any  one  how  far 
Don  Carlos  is  unfit  for  the  throne,  and  if  he  still  serves 


ALFONSISM   VERSUS   CARLISM.  313 

the  Carlist  cause,  it  is  simply  out  of  chivalry  and  old- 
fashioned  l()yalt3^  He  served  Ferdinand  VII.  and 
Charles  V.,  and  he  considers  himself  bound  to  serve 
Charles  VII.  But  had  you  asked  him  frankly  to  say 
whom  he  preferred  to  see  on  the  throne  of  Spain,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  country's  welfare,  he  would 
certainly  say  Don  Alfonso.  About  the  same  thing 
could  be  said  of  Dorregaray,  Lizarraga,  Olio,  and  other 
Carlist  leaders.  All  of  them  were  officers  in  Dona  Isa- 
bella's army.  All  of  them  joined  the  Carlist  party,  not 
because  they  objected  to  her  as  their  queen,  but  be- 
cause they  did  not  wish  either  to  serve  the  republic  or 
the  stranger,  Amadeo.  They  would  never  have  fought 
against  Isabella,  and  would  gladly  accept  her  son.  In 
fact,  Carlism  of  our  days  is  strong  with  the  popula- 
tions of  the  northern  provinces,  but  by  no  means  with 
its  leaders,  who  know  only  too  well  how  little  the 
weak-minded  Don  Carios  is  fit  to  rule  Spain,  or  even 
likely  to  be  accepted  by  any  portion  of  the  population 
as  soon  as  he  becomes  more  known.  You  said  Don 
Carlos  spoke  kindly  of  me  and  my  colleagues  when 
you  saw  him.  I  am,  therefore,  sorry  to  say  such  rude 
things  of  him,  but  I  believe  I  am  saying  only  what  is 
true." 

"  So  that,  practically,  you  admit  the  possibility  of 
the  republic  being  overthrown  ?  "  asked  I. 

"  As  things  are  going  on  now,"  *  answered  Senor 
Figueras,  "  I  must  say  that  I  would  not  deny  the  pos- 
sibility of  such  a  thing,  though  I  hope  it  will  not  hap- 
pen.   At  all  events  there  is  this  much  achieved  already, 

*  The  conversation  took  place  in  May,  1873. 


314  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

that  only  two  forms  of  government  have  henceforth 
become  possible  in  this  country  —  either  a  federal 
republic  or  a  constitutional  monarchy  with  Don  Al- 
fonso. This  is  a  great  gain.  A  short  time  ago  we  had 
about  a  dozen  combinations  considered  as  equally  pos- 
sible. Yet  Don  Alfonso,  though  his  chances  of  coming 
to  power  are  great,  en n not  last  long.  His  reign  will 
be  merely  a  short  adjournment  of  the  republic.  In 
holding  this  opinion,  I  do  not  lay  stress  alone  on  the 
progress  which  Republican  ideas  are  daily  making  in 
this  country,  but  also  on  some  of  the  unavoidable 
consequences  of  the  prince's  coming  to  the  throne." 

The  late  Presidente  del  Poder  Ejecutwo  began  here 
to  explain  to  me  the  various  combinations  of  political 
parties  which  would  necessarily  take  place  in  such  a 
case  —  combinations  the  description  of  which  here 
would,  I  am  afraid,  unnecessarily  tire  the  reader,  suffi- 
ciently perplexed  by  the  doings  of  his  own  parties  not 
to  take  interest  in  those  of  foreign  countries. 

As  a  counterpoise  to  this  thoroughly  Republican 
view  of  the  subject,  I  may  be  allowed  to  give  here  the 
opinion  of  another  gentleman  —  perhaps  the  ablest 
and  most  experienced  member  of  the  Alfonso  party, 
Senor  Comyn,  the  Spanish  minister  in  London.  In  a 
conversation  I  had  lately  with  his  excellency  he  said, — 

"  The  republic  is  impossible  with  us.  Our  people 
are  not  educated  for  it,  and  that  is  the  chief  reason 
why  I  always  sided  with  Don  Alfonso.  Castelar  and 
Carvajal,  who  sent  me  to  represent  Spain  at  the  court 
of  Queen  Victoria,  know  my  views.  I  never  made 
any  secret  of  them,  and  I  firmly  believe  that,  whatever 
may  be  our  immediate  future,  a  day  will  come  when 


ALFONSISM   VERSUS   CARLISM.  315 

Don  Alfonso  will  as  freely  enter  the  palace  of  Madrid, 
and  be  as  heartily  welcomed  there,  as  my  son  will  be 
in  this  house  when  he  returns  home  after  having  Aut 
ished  his  studies.  But  Don  Alfonso  must  have  a 
mustache  when  he  comes  to  Spain.  Before  that  his 
entry  w^ould  be  very  undesirable,  and  if  our  party 
begin  to  hurry  they  will  spoil  everything." 

Since  then  Don  Alfonso  has  been  proclaimed  king; 
but  he  has  still  no  mustache,  and  the  future  of  Spain 
is  as  uncertain  as  ever. 


816  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


SPANISH    REPUBLICANISM. 


THOUGH  everybody  knows  the  proverb,  "  There's 
nothing  new  under  the  sun,"  people  are  still  in- 
clined to  take  very  old  things  for  quite  new  ones. 
When  the  European  public  heard  of  the  federal  re- 
public having  been  proclaimed  in  Spain,  they  consid- 
ered it  as  quite  a  new  calamity  brought  upon  the 
political  world,  immediately  declared  it  to  be  subver- 
sive of  every  vestige  of  order,  and  attributed  its  origin 
to  the  propaganda  of  the  International  Society.  The 
truth  was,  however,  that  Spanish  federalism  was 
neither  a  new  thing,  nor  had  it  any  connection  what- 
ever with  the  International. 

First  of  all,  the  International  Society  is  essentially 
a  working  man's  association,  and  there  are  hardly  any 
working  men  at  all  in  Spain^  Catalonia  excepted.  Spain 
is  totally  an  agricultural  country,  and  it  is  well  known 
that  the  International  has  never  had  any  influence  on 
the  agricultural  laborers,  having  been  strictly  confined 
to  the  manufacturing  and  working  classes.  On  the 
other  hand,  any  one  that  knows  anything  about  Span- 
ish history  is  well  aware  that  what  the  Federalists  now 
call  the  "saving  formula  of  little  republics  within  a 
great   nation "  was  the  original  ibrm  of  government 


SPANISH  REPUBLICANISM.  317 

which  prevailed  all  over  the  Peninsula,  up  to  the  time 
when  foreign  kings,  adventurers,  and  armies  came, 
under  various  pretexts,  to  invade  the  Peninsula,  to  rob 
it  of  its  treasures,  and  its  people  of  their  liberties. 

If  the  various  kingdoms  which  constituted  ancient 
Spain  became  united,  it  was  chiefly  because  the  country- 
was  in  need  of  leaders,  and  of  great  unity  of  effort  for 
getting  rid  of  the  invaders.  The  intermarriage  be- 
tween the  sovereigns,  and  the  nominal  union  of  various 
kingdoms,  did  in  no  way  affect  their  constitution  and 
privileges,  and  as  soon  as  the  Moors  were  expelled,  the 
separate  provinces  began  at  once  to  claim  their  ancient 
rights  and  the  privilege  of  independent  existence. 

Early  in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  provincial  procu- 
radores,  or  repiesentatives  of  the  people,  rose  all  over 
the  country  to  oppose  the  foreign  yoke  of  the  young 
Charles  V.  and  his  Flemish  councillors,  and  refused  to 
swear  allegiance  to  him  until  he  himself  had  sworn  to 
maintain  the  liberties  and  privileges  of  the  Spanish  prov- 
inces and  municipalities.  The  researches  which  had 
been  made  by  the  late  Mr.  Bergenroth,  in  the  Simancas 
Archives,  are  sure  soon  to  revive  the  interest  in  the 
sanguinary  civil  war  known  as  the  war  of  Connum- 
dades^  which  offers  quite  an  inexhaustible  material  for 
romances,  dramas,  and  tragedies,  though  at  present  the 
great  struggle  and  its  heroes —  Padilla,  Maria  Pacheco, 
Vega,  Quintanilla,  Zapata,  and  Juan  Bravo  —  are  al- 
most forgotten. 

The  Comuneros  were  vanquished  and  their  leaders 
executed,  but  the  idea  which  they  represented,  and  for 
which  they  struggled,  was  on  that  account  not  eradi- 
cated from  the  minds  of  the  people  whom  we  know 


318  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS, 

under  the  general  denomination  of  Spaniards,  and  who 
are  in  reality  Castilians,  Aragonese,  Catalans,  Andalu- 
sians,  Basques,  &c.,  between  all  of  whom  there  is  cer- 
tainly more  difference  in  every  possible  respect  than 
has  ever  existed  between  an  Irishman  and  an  English- 
man, or  a  Bavarian  and  a  Prussian.  To  the  great  ma- 
jority of  people  outside  it  seems  that,  since  all  Span- 
iards profess  the  Catholic  religion  and  live  on  the  same 
peninsula,  they  must  be,  if  not  truly  homogeneous,  at 
all  events  very  similar  people.  No  notion  can  be  more 
false  than  tliis.  Men  have  constantly  proved  to  be  able 
to  profess  the  same  creed,  and  pray  to  the  same  God, 
and  yet  be  deadly  enemies.  The  most  flourishing  time 
of  Italy  was  that  of  its  municipal  oiganization,  and  we 
know  that  in  the  hatred  which  existed  at  that  time 
between  Genoa,  Venice,  Milan,  Florence,  &c.,  there  was 
something  far  exceeding  the  animosity  that  ever  ani- 
mated any  two  different  races.  The  same  thing  is  still 
to  be  seen  between  the  various  provinces  of  the  now 
United  Germany,  and  between  the  various  nationalities 
composing  the  Austrian  and  the  Russian  empire.  If 
Italy  looks  now  more  united,  it  is  simply  because  there 
was,  for  a  long  time,  a  general  idea  animating  the 
people.  Unity  became,  for  the  Italians,  synonymous 
with  the  overthrow  of  Austrian  dominion  and  of  the 
secular  power  of  the  pope.  Ifi  at  the  time  of  Napole- 
on's invasion,  Spain  had  been  left  to  herself,  she  might 
also,  perhaps,  have  softened  down  her  provincial  rival- 
ries, and  become,  at  least  as  far  as  appearance  goes,  a 
more  consolidated  state. 

That  the  spirit  of  localism  and  provincialism  does 
not  in  any  way  prevent  common  action  amongst  the 


SPANISH  REPUBLICANISM.  319 

various  component  parts  of  a  state,  is  sufficiently  clear 
to  any  one  who  reads  and  understands  the  most  glori- 
ous pages  of  the  history  of  England,  America,  and 
Switzerland,  or  is  able  to  penetrate  the  real  meaning 
of  the  last  German  success,  in  which  fierce  rivals  and 
deadly   enemies    were   cemented   into  one   invincible 
body.     Provided  the  idea  of  which  the  defence  is  to  be 
undertaken  is  common  to  all  their  provinces  and  mu- 
nicipalities, federal  states  have  almost  invariably  proved 
to   be  superior  in   efficiency  of  action   to  centralized 
states.     Senor  Castelar  points  out,  with  reference  to 
this  subject,  that  "  Asturias  alone  made  a  treaty  with 
Great  Britain,  and  the  treaty  was  religiously  observed 
by  the  whole  nation.     The  Alcalde  of  Mostoles,  an 
insignificant   village,   first   declared   war   against   Na- 
poleon, and  his  declaration  was  the  declaration  of  all 
Spain.     The  village  bell  rang  with  clamor,  and  awoke 
in  the  hearts  of  the  peasantry  indignation  against  the  in- 
vader; the  defiles  were  changed  into  Thermopylaes,  the 
hunter  became  a  guerilla,  and  the  guerilla  a  general." 
The  fact  that  Italy  and  Germany  have  quite  lately 
consolidated,  makes  the  reading  classes  of  the  public 
throughout  Europe  believe  that  we  have  entered  an 
age  of  large  empires ;  but  this  opinion  is  very  errone- 
ous.    To  make  any  progress  at  all,  as  great  states, 
Italy  and  Germany  had  first  of  all  to  get  rid  of  a  num- 
ber of  petty  sovereigns,  all  of  whom  were  equally  fa- 
mous for  extortions,  selfishness,  corruption,  and  utter 
imbecility.    Now  that  these  petty  princes  have  been  set 
aside,  the  central  powder,  by  means  of  which  they  were 
overthrown,  will  naturally  hold  its  sway  for  some  time, 
but  by  and  by  the  period  of  natural  disintegration  is 


320  SPAIN  AND    THE  SPANIARDS. 

sure  to  set  in  ;  and  all  the  misapprehensions  which 
exist  on  that  point  are  simply  the  result  of  people  not 
quite  realizing  the  difference  between  disintegration 
and  decomposition  in  state  matters  —  two  perfectly 
different  things.  Disintegration  by  no  mean^  implies 
a  decrease  of  strength  of  the  central  power,  in  cases 
where  the  activity  of  that  power  is  needful,  as  is  clearly 
shown  by  the  examples  of  America,  England,  and  even 
little  Switzerland ;  while  decomposition  is  the  invaria- 
ble and  inevitable  result  of  unlimited  centralization. 
With  the  execution  of  the  Girondists,  those  intrepid 
though  partly  unconscious  advocates  of  federalism, 
the  French  republic  itself  was  executed ;  while  the 
principle  of  self-government  embodied  in  the  otherwise 
very  narrow-minded  Anglo-Saxon  parish  and  munici- 
pality has  saved  the  liberties  of  the  nation.  The  English 
Georges  were  in  no  way  preferable  to  the  sundry  French 
Louises,  or  the  Spanish  Ferdinands  and  Charleses. 
At  the  same  time  the  worship  of  royalty  and  aristoc- 
racy was  always  incomparably  stronger  in  England 
than  either  in  France  or  Spain.  Yet,  while  Great 
Britain  was  steadily  growing  into  a  free  community  of 
free  citizens,  France  and  Spain  were  invariably  plun- 
ging from  savage  despotism  into  savage  anarchy,  or  vice 
versa.  The  explanation  of  this  fact  is,  that  the  history 
of  the  progress  of  national  liberty  is  simply  the  history 
of  the  progress  of  municipal  and  provincial  charters 
and  franchises. 

Such  being  the  general  principles  involved,  let  us  see 
now  what  are  the  particular  impediments  in  the  way  of 
Spain  ever  getting  constituted  as  an  orderly  central- 
ized state,  whether  Monarchical  or  Republican. 


SPANISH  REPUBLICANISM.  321 

Foremost  of  all  stand  the  natural  causes.  The  four 
kingdoms  of  Andalusia,  the  two  Casliles,  the  Yasco- 
Navarre  provinces,  Murcia,  Valencia,  Catalonia,  Ara- 
gon,  Galicia,  Leon,  Estremadura,  Asturias,  are  each 
and  all  vastly  different  in  every  possible  respect  —  in 
climate,  soil,  natural  productions,  character  of  the  pop- 
ulation, and  their  habits  and  pursuits.  No  uniform 
legislation  is  conceivable  for  them,  and  the  cry  for 
home  rule  must  unavoidably  arise  in  every  one  of  these 
provinces,  as  soon  as  the  Peninsula  is  out  of  danger  of 
foreign  invasion.  Except  those  of  Madrid,  all  the  rev- 
olutions and  revolts,  since  the  last  invaders  had  been 
got  rid  of,  were  —  whatever  may  have  been  their  im- 
mediate pretexts  —  in  substance  provincial  and  mami- 
cipal  risings  against  the  central  power.  Thus,  from  nat- 
ural causes  alone,  it  would  be  utterly  impossible  to  make 
a  centralized  state  of  the  Peninsula.  A  sort  of  patri- 
archal despotism  a  la  Miisse  would  be  the  only  means 
of  keeping  the  various  provinces  under  a  central  yoke. 
But  this  sort  of  government  is  possible  only  for  a  lim- 
ited time,  and  had  the  Russian  czars  of  the  present 
centuries  made  themselves  as  much  detested  and  de- 
spised by  their  subjects  as  the  Spanish  sovereigns  did, 
the  Russian  empire  would  have  been  by  this  time 
engaged  in  a  most  ferocious  civil  war  for  federalism, 
Poles,  Germans,  Fins,  Asiatic  tribes,  &c.,  all  claiming 
independent  existence. 

The  general  corruption  and  demoralization  of  Madrid 
are  another  obstacle  standing  in  the  way  of  Spanish 
centralization.  The  population  of  the  capital  consists 
chiefly  of  professional  politicians,  empleados  (civil  ser- 
vice functionaries),  in  and  out  of  office,  a  number  of 
21 


822  SPAIN  AND    THE  SPANIARDS. 

troops  accustomed  to  pronunciamientos,  stock  ex- 
change and  other  gamblers,  and  jobbers,  and  similar 
dangerous  classes.  The  provinces  justly  hold  Madrid 
in  utter  abhorrence,  and  know  that,  whether  the  form 
of  government  be  a  monarchy  or  a  unitarian  republic, 
the  power  will  practically  be  in  the  hands  of  these 
classes ;  and  this  is  what  they  won't  stand  under  any 
consideration.  The  prestige  which  Paris  has  for  every 
Frenchman  of  even  the  most  distant  province  is  here 
unknown.  Consequently,  while  the  French  capital  was 
constantly  able  to  settle  or  disturb  the  affairs  of  the 
whole  of  France,  in  Spain  we  almost  invariably  find 
the  provinces  satisfied  only  when  Madrid  is  disturbed, 
and  see  them  rising  again  as  soon  as  things  seem  to 
settle  in  the  capital.  The  most  striking  proof  of  this 
difference  between  the  two  countries  is  to  be  found 
in  the  fact  that  the  capture  of  Paris  was  invariably  an 
actual  conquest  of  the  whole  of  France,  while  the  en- 
try of  the  enemy  into  the  Spanish  capital  was  a  mere 
incident  of  the  war,  the  capture  of  a  large  town. 

Thus  the  general  character  of  the  relations  between 
the  capital  and  the  provinces  of  Spain  renders  the 
establishment  of  a  strong  central  government  impos- 
sible ;  and  as  no  centralized  state  has  ever  been  endura- 
ble, or  even  preserved  its  equilibrium,  unless  its  central 
power  was  unusually  strong,  one  would  be  justified  in 
assuming  that  only  two  forms  of  government  are  pos- 
sible in  the  Peninsula  —  either  a  federal  republic  or  a 
federative  monarchy,  something  similar  to  what  Austria 
has  been  tending  to  for  these  last  few  years. 

Now,  the  establishment  of  a  monarchy  of  even  such 
a  decentralized  form  will  still  meet  all  the  difliculties 


SPANISH  REPUBLICANISM,  323 

we  have  already  mentioned :  the  young  age  of  Don 
Alfonso,  the  popular  hatred  for  his  mother,  grand- 
mother, and  their  parties,  the  wretched  yet  unavoid- 
able influence  of  the  professional  politicians  of  Madrid, 
and  the  fact  of  the  prince  not  having  any  popular  party 
to  back  him.  And  along  with  these  obstacles  will 
come  the  constantly-growing  spread  of  Republican 
ideas  all  over  the  country.  But  as  I  have  endeavored 
all  through  this  volume  to  give  at  least  some  sort  of 
support  to  the  opinions  I  have  ventured  to  express, 
I  will  quote  here  a  better  authority  on  this  subject  than 
any  foreign  writer  on  Spain  could  ever  pretend  to  be. 
Here  is,  in  substance,  what  Don  Emilio  Castelar  wrote 
in  1872,  when  Amadeo  sat  on  the  throne  of  Spain, 
when  Europe  fully  believed  in  the  possibility  of  estab- 
lishing a  constitutional  monarchy  in  the  Peninsula, 
and  when  the  idea  of  "Spanish  federahsm"  was  quite 
unknown  to  the  European  public  at  large,  and  consid- 
ered a  silly  dream  by  the  few  who  had  heard  of  its 
being  advocated :  — 

"At  this  day  one  of  the  nations  most  fitted  for  the 
federation  is  our  Spain.  We  do  not  have  the  same 
Republican  traditions  as  those  possessed  by  Italy  and 
France.  Our  people,  always  at  war,  have  always 
needed  a  chief;  and  this  chief  required  not  only  the 
sword  of  the  soldier  to  fight,  but  the  sceptre  of  the 
monarch  to  rule.  N'otwithstanding  this  ancient  mo- 
narchical character,  there  are  regions  which  have  been 
saved  from  the  monarchy,  and  which  have  preserved 
their  democracy  and  their  republic.  There  still  exist 
in  the  north  provinces  possessed  of  an  autonomy  and 
an  independence  which  give  them  points  of  resem- 


824  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

blance  to  the  Swiss  cantons.  The  citizens  give  neither 
tribute  nor  blood  to  the  kinoes.  Their  firesides  are  as 
sacred  from  the  invasion  of  authority  as  those  of  the 
English  or  of  the  Americans.  Every  town  is  a  repub- 
lic, or  governed  by  a  council  elected  by  the  citizens  at 
the  summons  of  the  church  bell.  When  the  time  fixed 
by  their  constitution  arrives,  the  representatives  of  the 
towns  come  together  in  the  shade  of  the  secular  trees  of 
liberty,  vote  taxes,  draw  up  or  amend  the  laws,  name 
new  officers  and  withdraw  the  old  ones,  with  the  calm- 
ness and  moderation  of  a  people  accustomed  to  govern 
themselves  in  the  midst  of  the  agitations  of  liberty. 

"And  we  not  only  have  these  living  examples  of 
democracy,  but  we  have  also  democratic  traditions  — 
traditions  which  we  may  call  republican.  Our  Cortes 
of  Castile  succeeded  frequently  in  expelling  the  eccle- 
siastical and  aristocratic  estates  from  their  sessions. 
Our  Cortes  of  Aragon  attained  such  power  that  they 
named  the  government  of  their  kings,  and  obtained 
fixed  days  for  their  sessions.  Navarre  was  a  species 
of  republic  more  or  less  aristocratic,  presided  over  by 
a  king  more  or  less  respected.  And  the  Castilian 
municipalities  were  in  the  middle  ages  true  democratic 
republics.  All  the  citizens  came  to  council,  they  elected 
the  alcaldes,  and  alternated  on  the  jury.  They  guarded 
their  rights  of  reality  in  which  the  servitude  of  the 
tenantry  was  extinguished.  They  all  bore  arms  in  the 
militia,  all  held  safely  guarded  the  liberties  indispensa- 
ble to  life,  and  they  founded  together  the  brotherhood 
which  defended  these  against  feudalism,  and  which  was 
a  genuine  federation  of  plebeians. 

"  What  is  certain  is  the  complete  extinction  of  the 


SPANISH  REPUBLICANISM.  825 

monarchical  sentiment  in  the  Spanish  people.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  century,  monarchical  faith  had  dimin- 
ished in  the  popular  conscience,  and  the  respect  for  the 
monarchy  had  suffered  in  our  hearts.  The  scandals  of 
the  court  taught  the  people  that  kings  had  lost  the 
moral  superiority,  which  is  the  life  and  soul  of  politi- 
cal superiority.  An  insurrection  irreverently  attacked 
the  palaces  of  the  kings,  and  forced  them  to  abdica- 
tion. The  mutiny  of  Aranjuez  really  put  an  end  to 
the  absolute  monarchy.  Afterwards,  when  the  people 
carried  the  war  of  independence,  the  king  was  absent, 
converted  into  a  courier  of  the  conqueror,  congratu- 
lating him  on  victories  gained  against  his  own  subjects, 
and  licking  his  spurs  wet  with  Spanish  blood.  He 
(Ferdinand  YII.)  returned  to  oppress  the  patriots  who 
redeemed  him,  and  to  call  to  his  aid  the  foreigners  who 
had  captured  him.  The  crowned  monster  left  us  his 
offspring,  and  intrusted  the  cradle  of  his  child  to  the 
liberty  which  he  had  violently  persecuted. 

"  The  Spanish  Republican  party  is  distinguished  from 
the  Republican  party  of  France  by  having  been  always 
federal.  We  cannot  understand  how  the  popular  sov- 
ereignty exists  in  reality  or  in  force  in  a  country  where, 
as  its  only  means  of  manifestation,  it  has  the  suffrage 
placed  above  outraged  individual  rights,  over  mutilated 
municipalities  blindly  electing  in  accordance  with  ad- 
ministrative coercion  representatives  to  central  assem- 
blies, which,  imagining  themselves  sovereign,  become 
arbitrary.  The  geographical  constitution  of  the  Penin- 
sula makes  of  Spain  a  southern  Switzerland.  Its  vast 
Cordilleras  mark  the  boundaries  of  natural  and  auto- 
nomic states.     The  Basques  and  the  people  of  Navarre 


326  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

still  preserve  their  independence,  as  if  Natare  had 
wished  to  rebuke  with  this  living  example  the  violence 
of  men.  Between  the  Cantabrian,  the  Asturian,  and 
the  Galician,  although  they  stretch  upon  one  line,  and 
are  mirrored  in  the  waters  of  the  same  sea,  there  are 
profound  differences  of  race,  of  history,  of  character, 
which  always  give  rise,  in  spite  of  apoplectic  central- 
ization, to  profound  social  and  political  differences. 
The  two  Castiles,  separated  by  their  high  mountain 
range,  would  form  two  powerful  states.  Valencia, 
Murcia,  Andalusia,  and  Estremadura  are,  like  Italy, 
like  Greece,  the  regions  of  light,  and  inspiration,  and 
of  beauty,  the  fruitful  mothers  of  our  artists,  who  have 
dazzled  the  world  with  the  splendor  of  their  coloring; 
of  our  poets,  immortal  through  their  fire  and  their 
melody ;  of  our  orators,  who  preserve  in  the  midst  of 
modern  society  the  ancient  Hellenic  eloquence.  The 
Aragonese  retains  the  type  of  the  ancient  Celtiberian 
in  his  physique,  and  preserves  in  his  morale  the  inde- 
pendence, the  moderation,  and  the  virility  which  come 
of  his  historical  liberal  institutions.  Catalonia  is  a 
poetic  Provence,  inhabited  by  men  as  industrious  as 
the  English.  And  these  races  form  the  most  various 
and  most  united  nation,  and  consequently  the  nation 
most  naturally  federal  in  the  world.  No  one  need  ever 
think  that  Spain  can  be  reduced  to  fragments,  and  that 
those  fragments  shall  be,  like  aerolites,  lost  and  scat- 
tered through  immensity.  Spain  is  one  through  the 
consent  of  all  Sj^aniards,  is  federal  through  the  nature 
of  her  character,  her  geography,  and  her  history.  And 
the  federal  Republican  form  is  necessary  and  indispen- 
sable to-day  if  we  are  to  unite  with  the  Portuguese, 


SPANISH  REPUBLICANISM,  827 

a  people  restricted  in  territory,  but  great  in  their  his- 
tory, who  wrote  the  poem  of  navigation  and  of  labor, 
who  peopled  the  ocean  with  legions  like  the  ancient 
Argonauts,  who  evoked  the  East  Indies  from  oblivion, 
and  who  divided  with  us  the  immensity  of  the  New 
World,  as  they  ought  to  share  with  us  to-day  the  vast 
promise  of  another  world,  newer  and  wider,  the  lumi- 
nous world  of  justice  and  of  right.  It  is  certain  that 
all  these  ideas,  all  these  noble  aspirations,  have  pro- 
foundly impressed  our  country,  and  have  set  in  motion 
the  irresistible  Republican  current." 

If  there  was  any  truth  at  all  in  this  in  1872,  there  is 
much  more  in  1875.  Spanish  federalism  does  not 
mean  anything  more  dangerous  or  subversive  than 
what  already  exists  in  Switzerland  and  in  the  United 
States  of  America;  and  the  British  kingdom  itself  is, 
truly  speaking,  a  much  looser  federation  than  that 
projected  in  Spain  ;  for  the  greater  part  of  British  do- 
minions are  much  less  dependent  on  or  connected  with 
the  mother-country  than  any  Spanish  federal  council, 
senate,  or  congress  would  ever  allow  any  Spanish  prov- 
ince to  be.  As  to  the  apprehensions  of  Communistic 
or  Socialistic  theories  making  any  progress  under  the 
cover  of  federalism,  they  are  utterly  void  of  founda- 
tion. Take  any  correspondence  of  impartial  English 
witnesses  of  the  Federalist  risings  of  Carthagena, 
Valencia,  Malaga,  Barcelona,  or  any  other  province, 
and  you  will  see  that  no  attack  was  ever  made  on 
private  property.  The  letters  published  from  the 
Times'  special  correspondents  all  through  the  siege 
of  Carthagena  will  some  day  form  an  invaluable  mate- 
rial for  the  defence  of  the  much-abused  Spanish  Feder- 


328  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

alists.  Even  the  five  hundred  released  convicts  be- 
haved themselves  as  no  mob  in  any  country  ever  did 
in  time  of  peace.  I  have  not  seen  a  single  case  of  theft, 
or  violence,  or  even  drunkenness,  recorded  all  through- 
out the  siege,  although  the  correspondents  of  the  lead- 
ing English  journal  were  certainly  no  sympathizers 
with  either  the  Intransigentes  or  the  released  convicts. 
That  the  notions  of  property  will  ever  reach,  among 
any  branch  of  the  Latin  race,  the  extreme  point  they 
have  reached  in  Anglo-Saxon  countries,  is  more  than 
doubtful.  That  the  idea  of  "  vested  interests,"  for  in- 
stance, could  ever  be  entertained  in  any  but  an  Anglo- 
Saxon  head  is  not  very  probable.  But  the  respect  for 
individual  property  will,  on  that  account,  not  be  les- 
sened. There  are  not  a  few  acute  judges  of  human 
afiairs  who  believe  that,  if  anything  subversive  of  the 
present  theories  of  property  is  ever  to  be  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  world,  it  is  sure  to  come  from  the  Eng- 
lish race,  among  which  the  blind  worship  of  wealth 
may  finally  exasperate  millions  of  suffering  and  disre- 
garded individuals.  On  the  Continent  of  Europe  prop- 
erty is  more  safe,  simply  because  it  is  more  largely 
spread  among  all  classes  of  society.  Throughout  the 
whole  of  the  endless  civil  wars  in  Spain,  no  reason  was 
ever  given  to  the  world  for  apprehending  that  any  at- 
tempt would  be  made  in  that  country  to  upset  the  basis 
of  the  present  social  arrangements.  This  is  a  very 
important  point,  for  if  the  world  at  large  becomes  con- 
vinced of  it,  European  governments  may,  perhaps,  be 
induced  not  to  interfere  any  longer  with  the  form  of 
the  government  Spain  may  ultimately  select  for  itself. 


SPANISH  REPUBLICANISM,  329 

It  would  be  quite  useless  on  my  part  to  give  here  the 
theoretical  arguments  against  the  federal  form  of  gov- 
ernment. They  are  too  well  known,  and  there  are  too 
many  people  always  anxious  to  repeat  them  in  and  out 
of  season,  though  the  majority  of  such  people  know 
nothing  at  all  about  Spain,  and  have  hardly  ever  in- 
quired what  sort  of  thing  federalism  really  is.  Here 
is  a  Spanish  —  consequently,  a  somewhat  verbose  — 
definition  of  it:  — 

"Relations  between  individuals  create  the  family, 
relations  between  families  the  municipality,  relations 
between  municipalities  the  state,  and  between  states 
the  nation ;  and  the  nation  should  establish  itself  in 
constitutional  compacts  which  should  recognize  and 
proclaim  the  autonomy  of  the  citizens,  of  the  states, 
and  of  the  nation.  This  is  the  federal  Republican 
form.  This  is  the  form  which  leaves  all  entities  in 
their  respective  centres  of  gravity,  and  associates  them 
in  harmonious  spheres.  And  when  human  relations 
become  more  intimate,  not  only  through  those  miracles 
of  industry  which  annihilate  distance,  but  also  by  a 
closer  sense  of  the  solidarity  which  exists  among  all 
men,  the  federation  of  states,  which  we  call  nations, 
will  be  succeeded  by  the  federation  of  nations,  which 
we  may  call  the  organism  of  humanity. 

"  This  is  the  form  of  government  proposed  by  the 
Republican  deputies  in  the  Constituent  Assembly,  and 
defended  with  great  tenacity  in  daily  struggles ;  and 
when  this  form  of  government  is  dispassionately  exam- 
ined it  must  be  admitted  that  it  is  not  possible  to  invent 
another  more  adapted  to  our  national  character." 

It  is  quite  evident  that  neither  life,  nor  property,  nor 


830  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

order,  is  in  any  way  threatened  by  this  programme.  It 
is  just  as  evident  that  it  is  perfectly  immaterial  whether 
on  the  summit  of  such  a  federal  state  there  be  placed 
a  throne  or  a  presidential  chair.  If  the  people  like  to 
have  a  royalty  at  the  top  of  their  social  fabric,  let  them 
have  it ;  if  not,  don't  impose  it  upon  them.  Whether 
it  be  Alfonso,  or  Serrano,  or  Castelar,  or  any  other  per- 
son that  is  going  to  take  up  his  abode  at  the  palace  of 
Madrid,  it  is,  after  all,  quite  immaterial,  and  presents 
for  the  country  merely  a  question  of  a  balance  between  a 
civil  list  and  a  president's  salary.  But  what  every  well- 
wisher  of  Spain  should  desire  for  that  lovely  but  ill- 
fated  country  is,  that  it  should  get  rid  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible of  its  bureaucratic  and  centi'alization  fetters. 
Even  from  the  bitterest  enemies  of  Federalism,  I 
never  heard  in  Spain  itself  any  valid  practical  argu- 
ment against  a  federal  constitution,  except  that  Cas- 
tile and  Catalonia  must  be  ruined,  and  Cuba  lost  under 
a  federation. 

Castile  —  not  Old,  but  New  only  —  lives  upon  Ma- 
drid, and  Madrid  lives  upon  people  in  office,  the  court, 
the  foreigners,  and  similar  non-working  bodies;  that 
province  has  neither  trade,  nor  manufactures,  nor  agri- 
culture, and  must,  it  is  said,  become  a  desert  as  soon  as 
it  is  no  longer  a  governmental  centre.  To  this  the 
answer  is  plain.  The  advantage  of  getting  rid  of  the 
Madrid  parasites  is  too  great  for  the  country  at  large 
not  to  be  bought  at  the  price  of  New  Castile's  ruin. 
Besides,  if  neither  Castile  nor  Madrid  work  now,  the 
feeling  of  self-preservation  will  compel  them  to  work 
when  they  have  no  other  resources. 

Catalonia  is  expected  to  be  ruined  because,  being 


SPANISH  REPUBLICANISM,  331 

the  only  manufacturing  province,  it  has  always  been 
strongly  protected  by  the  general  tariff  to  which  a 
federal  constitution  would  put  an  end.  The  number- 
less ports  of  the  Peninsula  would  be  at  once  opened  to 
free  trade,  and  the  factories  of  Catalonia  would  have 
to  be  shut  up.  But  this  is  evidently  the  old  question 
of  free  trade  versus  protectionism,  and  the  old  answer 
must  be  given  to  it.  Catalonia  may  suffer  for  a  while, 
but  will  finally  rise  to  the  European  standard  of  work- 
manship. If  she  proves  unable  to  do  so,  it  will  be  only 
because  she  is  not  fit  for  the  work  she  has  undertaken, 
and  in  that  case  it  would  be  unjust  to  make  the  whole 
Peninsula  indefinitely  pay  for  the  incapacity  of  Cata- 
lonia. 

As  to  Cuba,  the  chances  of  her  getting  adrift  could 
by  no  means  be  increased  by  a  federal  constitution. 
On  the  contrary,  many  people  believe  that  Cuba  is  lost 
already,  and  that  the  only  means  of  saving  the  isle  is 
to  emancipate  her  slaves,  and  grant  her  all  the  privi- 
leges she  could  enjoy  either  as  an  independent  republic 
or  as  a  member  of  the  United  States. 

People  who  point  out  the  constant  disturbances  and 
insurrections,  obviously  forget  that  these  were  more 
numerous  and  more  sanguinary  under  the  centralized 
monarchy.  The  political  disturbances  in  the  Peninsula 
are,  as  everywhere  else,  the  result  of  bad  government 
on  the  one  hand,  and  of  an  undue  advance  of  "ideas" 
over  "knowledge"  in  the  mass  of  the  people  on  the 
other.  Provided  the  form  of  government  suits  a 
nation,  people  remain  the  quieter  the  less  they  "think," 
and  the  more  they  "  know."  It  was  always  by  "  ideas  " 
and  "generalities"  that  the  Continent  of  Europe  was 


332  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

disturbed^  and  it  was  by  the  utter  absence  oi*  anything 
like  "thoughts"  that  the  population  of  the  British  Isles 
was  kept  in  peace.  The  Englishman  who  thinks,  is  just 
as  turbulent  a  person  as  the  Spaniard  or  the  Frenchman, 
while  the  Spaniard  or  Frenchman  who  possesses  the 
knowledge  of  the  average  Briton,  is  generally  jnst  as 
orderly  and  peace-loving  an  individual  as  the  most  re- 
spectable of  her  majesty's  subjects.  If  the  mass  of 
Spaniards  and  Frenchmen  could  be  by  some  sort  of 
contrivance  made  to  think  less  and  to  know  more,  we 
should  never  hear  of  any  revolutions  in  those  conntries, 
and,  to  my  mind,  the  greatest  danger  for  Spain  is  the 
utter  ignorance  of  her  population,  and  its  obstinate  dis- 
like to  acquire  any  knowledge,  whether  it  be  of  a  the- 
oretical or  of  a  practical  nature. 


There  is  one  more  argument  against  federalism,  and 
it  is  this :  it  precludes  the  possibility  for  a  country  to 
have  an  army.  The  civil  war  in  America  has  bril- 
liantly refuted  this  assertion,  and  the  supposition  that 
a  Republican  army  in  Spain  must  necessarily  be  worse 
than  a  Monarchical  one  is  perfectly  unwarranted. 

As  soldiers,  Spaniards  have  a  very  bad  reputation, 
and  to  defend  them  in  this  respect  would  probably 
prove  a  very  ungrateful  task.  Truly  speaking,  it  would 
even  be  difficult  to  maintain  that  they  are  good  sol- 
diers, in  the  sense  in  which  the  word  is  understood  in 
the  German  army,  for  instance.  But  what  is  quite  fair 
to  say  —  though,  perhaps,  it  may  also  not  be  easy  to 
convince  people  who  have  made  up  their  mind  to  the 


SPANISH  REPUBLICANISM.  333 

contrary  —  is  that  Spaniards  are  by  no  means  the  cow- 
ards they  are  not  unfrequently  represented  to  be.  The 
bad  military  reputation  of  Spaniards  arose  in  England, 
since  the  time  of  the  Peninsular  war,  when  they  were 
brought  side  by  side  with  the  stanch,  thoroughly  dis- 
ciplined British  rank  and  file.  Lord  Wellington  was, 
from  his  point  of  view,  perfectly  right  in  constantly 
complaining  of  the  Spanish  troops.  He  was  too  much 
accustomed  to  the  English  fashion  of  military  training 
to  put  up  with  the  loose,  guerrilla  nature  of  the  Span- 
iards. The  stern,  business-like  English  commander- 
in-chief  could  not  stand  their  being  always  too  late, 
always  wanting  in  something.  Describing  some  ill- 
success,  he  would,  in  utter  disgust,  but  as  usual  in  very 
homely  language,  remark  in  his  despatch,  "All  this 
would  have  been  avoided,  had  the  Spaniards  been 
anything  but  Spaniards,"  or,  "They  have  not  done 
anything  that  they  were  ordered  to  do,  and  have  done 
exactly  that  against  w^hich  they  were  warned  ; "  or,  "  I 
am  afraid  that  the  utmost  we  can  hope  for  is  to  teach 
them  how  to  avoid  being  beaten  ;  if  we  can  effect  that 
object,  I  hope  we  may  do  the  rest."  Such  and  similar 
testimonies  against  the  Spaniards,  coming  from  a  man 
of  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  authority,  have  naturally 
caused  every  one  rashly  to  conclude  that  Spaniards 
were  not  worth  anything  at  all  as  soldiers.  No  one 
remembered  any  longer  that  their  armies  had  con- 
quered kingdoms  in  all  parts  of  the  globe,  and  that 
their  infantry  was  once  the  terror  and  admiration  of 
the  whole  world.  Even  the  duke's  own  testimonies 
made  on  other  occasions,  stating  "  that  their  conduct 
was  equal  to  that  of  any  troops  I  had  ever  seen  en- 


834  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

gaged,"  were  overlooked.  The  bad  name  had  been 
once  given,  and  there  was  an  end  to  it ;  no  one  would 
inquire  what  was  the  reason  that  sometimes  they 
fought  so  well,  while  in  other  cases  and  at  other  times 
so  badly.  No  one  would  take  the  trouble  to  look  into 
the  Spanish  character  for  the  explanation  of  these  evi- 
dently contradictory  phenomena;  nor  was  any  Eng- 
lishman disposed  to  believe  that,  though  England  was 
the  ally  of  Spain,  Spaniards,  upon  the  whole,  detested 
the  English  just  as  much  as  they  detested  the  French. 
Only  Wellington's  remarks  that  "  they  oppose  and 
render  fruitless  every  measure  to  set  them  right  or 
save  them"  would  now  and  then  betray  that  he,  at  all 
events,  had  some  idea  of  the  real  feelings  of  the  Span- 
iards. In  fact,  one  would  be  inclined  to  believe  that 
an  essentially  common-sense  man,  like  the  duke,  must 
have  perceived  the  whole  truth  on  this  subject,  for, 
though  Spaniards  were  courteous  and  polite,  as  they 
always  are,  the  manner  in  which  they  opj^osed  the  Eng- 
lish whenever  they  could  possibly  do  so,  and  the  fact  of 
Spanish  soldiers  pillaging  English  baggage-trains  just 
as  unceremoniously  as  they  did  French  ones,  showed 
plainly  enough  the  real  state  of  affairs  with  reference 
to  "feelings."  The  Moro-Iberian  pride,  the  Espano- 
lismo^  has  always  caused,  and  is  still  causing,  the  Span- 
iards equally  to  detest  every  foreigner,  whether  he  be 
supposed  friend  or  declared  foe,  as  soon  as  he  comes 
into  Spain  with  anything  like  power  in  his  hands. 
Let  a  foreigner  come  as  a  guest,  and  he  is  received 
with  open  arms,  and  more  hospitably  than  in  any  other 
country.  But  as  soon  as  he  comes  for  a  business  pur- 
pose —  be  it  to  fight  for  a  Spanish  cause,  or  simply  to 


SPANISH  REPUBLICANISM.  335 

work  mines  or  railways  "for  the  benefit  of  Spaniards," 
he  is  sure  to  be  equally  detested  all  over  the  country. 
What  the  Spaniards  always  wanted,  and  what  they 
could  never  obtain,  was  to  be  left  alone.  In  the  whole 
of  their  existence  as  a  nation,  scarcely  a  century  passed 
in  which  foreigners,  either  black  or  white,  did  not 
come  to  interfere  with  Spanish  aflfairs  one  way  or  the 
other. 

It  must  be  said  also  that  Spaniards  were  never  so 
stupid  as  to  believe  that  the  English  had  come  to  the 
Peninsula  for  the  purpose  of  "  saving "  them.  They 
understood  pretty  well  that  the  British  interference 
was  simply  the  result  of  a  strong  desire  on  the  part  of 
Englishmen  to  defend  themselves  against  any  possible 
attack  of  Napoleon.  It  was  much  cheaper  and  much 
more  convenient  for  England  to  make  war  upon  the 
"  Monster  "  abroad  than  at  home,  and  it  was  therefore 
only  natural  on  the  part  of  the  Spaniards  that  they 
should  not  be  much  affected  by  any  feeling  of  grati- 
tude. By  and  by,  when  the  English  begin  to  look  at 
their  past  political  dealings  in  an  impartial  and  less 
ultra- patriotic  light,  they  will  perceive  the  harm  they 
have  done  Spain.  Candid  and  honest  Englishmen 
acknowledge  the  fact  already,  and  the  December  num- 
ber (1873)  of  Frazer's  Magazine  gave  an  article  on  the 
Spanish  struggle  for  liberty,  in  which  it  was  said 
frankly  enough  that,  "  whatever  we  may  think  of  our 
Peninsular  campaigns,  our  presence  in  Spain  at  that 
crisis  of  her  history  was  almost  an  unmitigated  curse." 
Had  the  Spaniards  been  left  alone  to  deal  with  Napoleon, 
they  might  perhaps  have  suffered  much  more,  but  it 


336  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

would  have  done  them  good ;  for  a  spirit  of  national 
unity  would  have  been  ultimately  aroused,  the  enemy 
expelled,  and  Spain  rendered  much  more  homogeneous 
than  it  now  is.  As  things  went,  however,  for  the  whole 
of  this  century  the  Peninsula  was  inundated  by  foreign 
troops  in  whom  the  oppressed  and  ignorant,  but  in- 
tensely proud  Spaniard  refused  to  distinguish  friend 
from  foe,  whom  he  taxed  wholesale  with  the,  to  him, 
opprobrious  name  of  extranjero^  and  who  thoroughly 
demoralized  him  by  impressing  his  mind  with  the  idea 
of  his  helplessness.  The  constant  party-struggles,  the 
origin  of  which  lies,  also,  mostly  in  the  constant  inter- 
ference of  foreigners,  completed  the  demaraUzation  of 
the  Spaniard  as  a  soldier.  Almost  since  the  days  of 
the  first  War  of  the  Succession,  the  Spaniard  had  con- 
stantly to  fight,  without  ever  exactly  knowing  for  whom 
or  for  what  he  fought.  Consequently  he  got  finally 
tired  of  it,  fought  badly,  and  not  unfrequently  simply 
absconded  from  the  battle-fields.  But  to  conclude 
from  that,  that  he  is  incapable  of  behaving  as  an  honor- 
able soldier,  or  that  he  is  a  coward,  is,  to  say  the  least^ 
absurd.  There  is  scarcely  a  country  in  the  whole  of 
Europe  where  disregard  for  life  is  greater,  and  where 
fighting  is  more  natural  to  men,  each  of  whom  handles 
his  knife  and  his  trabuco  (blunderbuss)  from  boyhood. 
And  the  best  means  of  persuading  one's  self  whether  or 
not  the  Spaniard  can  stand  danger,  or  is  disposed  to  risk 
his  life,  is  to  provoke  him  on  a  point  he  really  cares 
about. 

Another  point  in   which   the  foreign    intervention, 
coupled  with  the  monstrous  misgovernment  which  has 


SPANISH  REPUBLICANISM.  337 

always  prevailed  in  the  unhappy  Peninsula,  affected 
the  Spanish  army,  is  the  financial  ruin  of  the  country. 
When  the  soldier  is  neither  fed,  nor  clad,  nor  paid,  he 
cannot  be  expected  to  do  his  duty,  and  the  very  com- 
plaints of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  that  the  Spaniards 
frequently  came  to  join  him  barefooted,  in  rags,  and 
fought  badly,  far  from  throwing  blame  upon  them, 
speak  much  in  their  favor,  for  no  other  soldier  in  the 
same  condition  would  have  fought  at  all. 

Under  the  republic  things  went  still  worse  than 
they  were  under  Isabella  or  Amadeo,  for  the  govern- 
ment cash-box  was  finally  emptied,  while  the  expenses 
for  the  war  department  increased  on  account  of  the 
armament  of  the  National  Guards,  each  of  whom  was  to 
get  two  pesetas  (about  fifty  cents)  a  day.  The  National 
Guards  brought  into  the  bargain  an  additional  element 
of  dissolution  into  the  army :  the  regular  soldier  became 
jealous  of  their  pay,  and  of  their  being  put  on  an  equal 
footing  with  himself,  who  had  served  for  ten,  twelve, 
and  perhaps  fifteen  years.  To  quote  only  one  example 
of  hew  things  really  stood,  I  may  adduce  here  the 
mutiny  which  took  place  at  Bilbao  in  May,  1873.  The 
division  quartered  there  had  not  been  paid  for  months 
and  months,  and  as  the  Carlists  grew  very  strong  in 
Biscaya,  the  Madrid  government  insisted  upon  the 
Bilbao  troops  commencing  operations  against  Valesco's 
corps.  But  the  regulars,  as  well  as  the  volunteers,  re- 
fused blankly  to  march  out,  saying  that  they  were  in 
want  of  everything,  and  would  not  do  any  service  until 
paid,  at  least,  the  arrears.  The  government,  at  its  wit's 
end  what  to  do,  sent  out  General  Lagunero  to  settle 
matters.  On  his  arrival,  he  managed  to  borrow  a  mil- 
22 


338  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

lion  francs  from  the  rich  merchants  of  Bilbao,  and  to 
pay  at  least  a  part  of  the  troops.* 

About  ten  days  later  I  reached  Bilbao,  called  upon 
General  Lagunero,  and  asked  permission  to  follow  the 
corps,  as  it  was  announced  in  Madrid,  before  my  leav- 
ing, that  they  were  about  to  commence  important 
operations.  To  this  Lagunero  answered  he  was  per- 
fectly willing  to  let  me»  go  with  him,  but  at  the  same 
time  added,  "If  you  want  really  to  see  something  you 
had  better  go  to  the  Carlists,  because  I  am  certain  that 
we  shall  have  very  few  engagements,  unless  it  be  in  the 
town  itself.  The -troops,  though  they  have  been  paid, 
have  received  very  little,  and  that  only  on  account  of 
the  arrears.  To  be  able  to  march,  we  must  give  them 
money  again,  and  we  have  none.  I  exhausted  all  the 
credit  I  could  possibly  have  here.  If  you  go  to  the 
Carlists,  you  can  all  the  same  witness  their  attack  upon 
us,  if  they  are  going  to  make  any,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  will  have  a  chance  of  seeing  their  engagements 
with  some  other  column  better  provided  for.  As  to  my 
troops,  I  am  almost  certain  that  they  won't  fight  before 
the  town  is  besieged."  And  it  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  gentleman  who  told  me  all  that  was  a  good 
general,  a  true  Kepublican,  and  inspired  sufficient  confi- 
dence in  the  government  of  Madrid  to  be  subsequently 
intrusted  with  a  high  appointment  in  Castile. 

An  additional  element  for  weakening  the  army  was 
also  the  theories  spread  by  those  very  same  gentlemen 

*  In  the  main  body  of  the  northern  army  things  stood  worse 
still.  Last  June,  when  that  force  was  under  General  Nouvilas, 
over  foiu"  million  francs  were  due  to  an  army  of  ten  thousand 
men. 


SPANISH  REPUBLICANISM.  339 

who  subsequently  had  so  much  to  deplore  the  conse- 
quences of  their  propaganda.  All  the  Republicans, 
Seiior  Castelar  at  the  head  of  them,  had  always  argued 
against  standing  armies,  and  it  was  natural  that,  when 
they  came  to  power,  a  great  number  of  soldiers  should 
ask  to  be  released  from  service.  But,  much  to  the 
soldiers'  disappointment,  the  government  did  not  seem 
willing  to  release  even  those  of  them  who  had  conclud- 
ed their  term  of  service,  pretending  that  the  country 
was  in  danger,  and  that  it  was  their  duty  to  continue 
in  service.  To  expect  that,  under  all  these  circum- 
stances, men  should  well  perform  their  duty,  is  to 
ask  more  than  can  reasonably  be  expected  from  any 
human  being. 

Then,  again,  provincial  jealousies  act  sometimes  most 
unfavorably  on  the  spirit  of  the  army.  The  various 
kingdoms  which  formerly  composed  Spain  were  easily 
enough  cemented  under  the  influence  of  the  common 
danger  to  which  they  were  exposed  under  the  Moors, 
and  Spanish  unity  would  probably  have  grown  stronger 
and  stronger,  had  not  strangers  come  over  either  to 
pillage  or  to  save  her.  With  the  turn  things  took  in 
the  present  century,  Andalusia,  Catalonia,  Navarre, 
the  Basque  provinces,  &c.,  became  almost  as  strange  to 
each  other  as  Ireland  is  to  England,  or  the  Italian 
provinces  were  to  Austria ;  and  when  men  taken  from 
these  different  provinces  are  brought  together  in  one 
regiment,  internal  discord  in  such  a  corps  is  inevitable, 
and  it  is  natural  that,  when  insurrections  occur,  and  a 
corps  of  that  mixed  description  is  sent  to  fight  in  the 
provinces,  all  the  men  who  happen  to  belong  to  the 
revolted  districts  are  thus  actually  compelled  to  fight 


340  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

their  friends  and  relatives,  and  consequently  cannot  be 
expected  to  fight  well.  Very  frequently,  in  passing 
through  the  villages  of  the  north,  my  attention  was 
attracted  by  some  women,  or  children,  whose  appear- 
ance, full  of  grief  and  misery,  was  really  shocking; 
and  it  almost  invariably  turned  out,  on  inquiries,  that 
the  father  or  brother  of  such  an  unfortunate  woman 
was  in  the  Carlist  ranks,  while  her  husband,  and  the 
father  of  her  children,  was  in  the  Republican  ranks,  and 
they  had  now  to  come  to  fight  each  other  in  the  very 
same  village,  perhaps  cl6se  to  the  very  same  house  in 
which  they  had  lived  formerly  together.  What  is  the 
moral  or  legal  force  on  earth  that  could  compel  men  in 
such  a  position  to  submit  to  anything  like  discipline, 
or  the  performance  of  what  is  supposed  to  be  their 
duty? 

Those  who  remember  the  position  of  the  Austrian 
empire  a  short  time  ago,  know  that  the  variety  of 
nationalities  composing  it  was  the  great  cause  of 
Austria's  weakness,  and  that  the  government  of  Vi- 
enna, when  revolts  broke  out  in  any  part  of  the  em- 
pire, were  invariably  compelled  to  make  a  very  careful 
selection  of  the  troops  they  sent  out  on  such  occasions. 
It  was  in  that  way  that  travellers  seldom  saw  in  the 
Italian  parts  of  the  Austrian  dominions,  anything  but 
Czech,  Polish,  and  Hungarian  regiments,  while  the 
Italian  regiments  were  restoring  order  in  Galicia  or 
Hungary.  Who  does  not  remember  the  bands  of 
Czech  regiments  playing  in  the  evening  in  the  great 
Marco  Square  in  Venice,  with  soldiers  of  the  same  force 
standing  all  around  the  orchestra,  and  having  lanterns 
gtuck  upon  the  bayonets  of  their  guns?    They  were 


SPANISH  REPUBLICANISM,  341 

supposed,  of  course,  merely  to  give  light  to  the  musi- 
cians ;  but  the  guns  were  loaded  and  the  bayonets 
sharpened.  This  is  the  only  way  to  preserve  peace 
and  order  under  similar  circumstances ;  but  a  repub- 
lican government  cannot  decently  use  the  same  means, 
and  this  is  the  whole  explanation  of  the  fact  why  the 
Spanish  republic  had  no  army.  And  Don  Alfonso 
will  not  fare  better,  unless  he  rules  a  VAllemande  or 
a  la  Musse. 


342  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS, 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

CASTELAR   AND   FIGUERAS. 

DON  EMILIO  CASTELAR  will  probably  re- 
main, for  a  long  time  to  come,  the  central 
figure  in  the  history  of  Spanish  Republicanism.  The 
courage  and  earnestness  with  which  he  served  the 
cause,  his  unblemished  personal  reputation,  and  his 
brilliant  eloquence,  have  rendered  him  immensely  popu- 
lar in  his  country,  while  the  comparative  moderation 
of  his  views  gained  for  him  abroad  the  sympathies  of 
even  the  political  men  and  parties  opposed  to  Republi- 
can principles.  They  abused  him,  and  sneered  at  his 
"florid  dialectics,"  as  long  as  they  still  preserved  a 
hope  of  seeing  the  monarchy  of  Amadeo  firmly  estab- 
lished in  Spain ;  but  the  moment  they  became  con- 
vinced that  its  chances  were  gone,  they  began  to  speak 
of  him  as  of  a  great  man,  evidently  believing  that  their 
compliments  will  not  only  flatter  Seiior  Castelar,  and 
increase  the  general  moderation  of  his  views,  but  cause 
him  to  give  up  some  of  the  principles  he  has  formerly  ad- 
vocated —  the  abolition  of  standing  armies,  for  instance, 
of  capital  punishment,  of  the  separation  of  state  and 
church,  &c.  And  it  must  be  said  that  the  hopes  enter- 
tained by  these  gentlemen  were  not  deceived.  Speak- 
ing of  socialistic  Utopias,  Senor  Castelar  wrote  once, 


CASTELAR  AND  FIGUERAS,  343 

"  But  I  object  to  embracing  within  the  programme  of 
the  federation  and  of  the  republic  all  these  vague  aspi- 
rations, some  of  them  contrary  to  progress,  and  others 
to  individual  rights,  and  all  dangerous  to  the  peace  of 
democracy ;  because,  if  we  promise  the  impossible  and 
the  absurd,  the  day  of  the  republic,  instead  of  being 
the  day  of  redemption,  will  be  the  day  of  disenchant- 
ment ;'''*  and  the  last  words  of  this  sentence  look  now 
as  if  they  had  been  written  with  special  reference  to 
himself.  Almost  everything  he  had  fought  for  during 
something  like  thirty  years  he  had  to  disregard,  nay,  to 
trample  under  his  feet,  when  he  made  himself  a  Dicta- 
tor in  September,  1873.  No  one  will  ever  think  of 
accusing  him  of  having  been  moved,  in  that  case,  by 
personal  consideration,  or  by  ambition.  A  noble  pa- 
triotism, and  an  intense  desire  of  helping  his  country 
out  of  the  chaos,  were  the  only  motives  that  prompted 
him  in  advocating  and  enforcing  measures  which  he 
had  formerly  attacked  as  most  iniquitous,  and  from  the 
adoption  of  which  his  former  colleagues  and  brothers  in 
arms  shrank.  Yet,  though  his  motives  were  most  hon- 
orable, the  fact,  which  history  will  have  to  record,  will, 
nevertheless,  remain  unmitigated :  Castelar  had  re- 
course to  violent  reactionary  measures  which  he  had 
always  condemned,  while  Figueras,  Salmeron,  and  Pi  y 
Margall  resigned  power  rather  than  act  in  disaccord- 
ance  with  the  political  opinions  they  professed. 

This  inconsistency  of  Senor  Castelar  was,  however, 
inevitable.  There  is  a  division  of  labor  in  the  business 
of  the  state  as  in  any  other.  The  duties  of  a  leading 
member  of  the  opposition  are  quite  different  from  those 
of  a  leading  statesman  in  oflSice,  not  to  speak  of  the 


344  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

truism  that  the  most  brilliant  orator  is  not  necessarily 
a  good  minister  or  dictator.  Seiior  Castelar  was  al- 
ways a  theorist,  and,  as  such,  had  naturally  to  aim  at 
the  ideal,  at  the  impossible,  to  make  people  obtain  the 
possible.  When  he  took  office,  he  became  at  once  a 
sort  of  dissonant  note,  something  like  Mr.  Bright  sitting 
in  the  English  cabinet ;  only  as  his  official  position  was 
incomparably  higher  than  that  of  Mr.  Bright,  and  as  he 
had  arbitrarily  to  rule  the  country,  instead  of  simply 
giving  his  opinion  in  council,  the  dissonance  was  also  a 
more  loud  and  screaming  one.  He  had  now  to  defend 
and  enforce  the  possible  against  the  claims  of  the  im- 
possible he  advocated  formerly.  The  position  of  his 
colleagues  was  incomparably  more  advantageous ;  they 
were  more  practical  men,  had  never  assumed  the  stand- 
point of  theorists,  and,  consequently,  the  more  moder- 
ate of  them  (Figueras  and  Salmeron),  as  w^ell  as  the 
more  violent  Pi  y  Margall),  have  an  equally  fair  chance 
of  escaping  at  least  theoretical  criticism,  in  addition  to 
the  practical,  for  the  time  they  held  office,  while  Senor 
Castelar  will  necessarily  be  open  to  both. 


The  names  of  Castelar  and  Figueras  bear  a  very 
close  association  in  my  mind.  I  saw  the  two  gentle- 
men at  work  together,  and  they  always  seemed  to  me 
to  throw  light  upon  each  other.  They  became  connect- 
ed very  early  in  life,  having  worked  hand  in  hand  in 
favor  of  the  republic  since  1840.  The  only  difference 
was,  that  Figueras,  being  a  Catalan,  was  doing  his  work 
chiefly  in  Catalonia,  while  Castelar  was  in  Madrid,  as 


CASTELAR  AND  FIGUERAS.  345 

Professor  of  History  and  Rhetoric  at  the  university. 
The  political  notoriety  of  the  fallen  dictator  began, 
however,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  only  in  1856,  when  he 
was  editor  of  a  paper  called  La  Democracia^  a  journal 
fiercely  at  war  with  another  democratic  paper,  La 
Discusion^  edited  by  Don  E'icolas  Rivero.  In  April, 
1856,  Oastelar  published  in  his  journal  a  violent  article 
against  Isabella,  under  the  heading  of  ^'' El  I^asgo^^ 
(the  Gift)  ;  and  the  government,  not  satisfied  with  bring- 
ing the  author  before  the  tribunals,  insisted  upon  his  be- 
ing disznicsed  from  his  professorship.  Senor  Montalvan, 
the  rector  of  the  university,  replied  that  the  offences 
for  which  the  professors  could  be  dismissed  were  enu- 
merated in  the  code,  and  that  Senor  Castelar's  offence 
could  not  be  brought  under  any  of  the  paragraphs. 
The  government,  growing  savage,  dismissed  Montalvan 
himself;  the  students  got  up  a  serenade  in  his  honor, 
the  police  interfered,  troops  were  brought  out,  a  general 
row  ensued  in  Madrid,  and  several  unconcerned  people 
were  killed  in  the  streets. 

To  Americans  and  Englishmen,  Don  Emilio  Castelar 
became  known  chiefly  through  his  writing  in  Harper's 
Magazine  and  in  the  Fortnightly  Review,  on  subjects 
connected  with  the  Republican  movement  in  Europe. 
These  articles,  which  I  have  already  quoted  here,  were 
written  in  Spanish,  and  translated  into  English  by  some 
gentlemen  at  the  American  legation.  As  a  poet  of 
considerable  ability,  Senor  Castelar  was  early  known 
throughout  his  country. 

In  their  physical  appearance  and  habits  of  life,  the 
two  leaders  of  the  Madrid  federalist  party  are  quite 
different.     Castelar  is  a  man  of  middle  height,  with 


346  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

broad  shoulders  and  a  powerful  chest,  with  a  perfectly 
bald  head,  somewhat  narrow  forehead,  and  a  very  thick, 
long,  dark  mustache.  Upon  the  whole,  I  think  he 
would  look  remarkably  well  in  the  uniform  of  a  cavalry 
general.  His  attitudes  are,  I  am  afraid,  always  studied. 
He  seems  always  ready  to  deliver  an  oration,  and  I 
never  remember  having  seen  him  assuming  a  "  stand- 
at-ease  "  attitude.  He  is  indescribably  amiable  with  ev- 
erybody, and  especially  so  with  literary  men ;  and  Sefior 
Figueras,  who  has  much  in  himself  of  the  critic  and  sat- 
irist, laughed  immensely  while  describing  to  me  an  inter- 
view himself  and  Senor  Castelar  had  with  an  American 
and  an  English  journalist,  who  could  not  speak  one  word 
either  of  Spanish  or  even  French,  while  neither  Senor 
Castelar  nor  Senor  Figueras  knew  English;  so  that 
the  mutual  paying  of  compliments  and  the  "  interview- 
ing" business  proceeded  through  the  instrumentality 
of  an  American  dentist,  who  has  long  lived  in  Madrid, 
and  is  quite  a  popular  character  there.  And  Seiior 
Figueras  added  that  Don  Emilio  was  quite  delighted 
with  the  meeting,  during  which  he  (Figueras)  had,  it 
appears,  the  greatest  difficulty  to  restrain  himself  from 
bursting  into  a  fit  of  laughter. 

Castelar,  notwithstanding  his  numerous  occupations, 
finds  leisure  and  disposition  to  go  out  into  society  — 
at  least,  he  did  so  when  he  was  minister  for  foreign 
affairs,  —  while  Figueras  goes  to  bed  at  nine  P.  M., 
and  rises  at  five  A.  M.  The  first  time  I  was  intro- 
duced to  him  was  at  half  past  six  in  the  morning,  at  his 
private  residence  in  Calle  de  la  Salud.  At  seven  A.M. 
he  invariably  left  his  home  to  go  to  the  Presidency. 
The  simplicity  of  his  manners,  as  compared  with  those 


CASTELAR  AND  FIGUERAS.  347 

of  Senor  Castelar,  is  quite  striking.  He  is  also  much 
taller  than  his  friend,  and  must  liave  been  a  very 
handsome  man  formerly ;  but  now  he  looks  pale  and 
thin,  and  his  hair  is  turning  gray. 

Contrary  to  the  general  belief  spread  in  England 
that  Castelar  was  the  man  of  the  Republican  party,  I 
have  every  reason  to  believe  that  he  was  frequently 
but  the  mouth-piece  of  his  friend,  Don  Estanislao  Fi- 
gueras,  a  man  of  incomparably  more  knowledge,  more 
statesman-like  capacities,  and  a  more  practical  turn  of 
mind.  But  Senor  Figueras  was  perfectly  aware  of  the 
great  oratorical  gifts  of  his  friend,  Don  Emilio,  and 
consequently  when  they  sat  together  as  deputies,  when- 
ever there  was  a  necessity  for  mastering  the  Assembly 
by  means  of  impassioned  eloquence,  Figueras  pushed 
Castelar  forward,  the  speeches  often  having  been  pre- 
pared in  concert  on  the  previous  day ;  but  the  extem- 
pore retorts  of  a  business-like  nature,  not  necessarily 
implying  much  rhetoric,  Senor  Figueras,  as  a  rule,  re- 
served to  himself.  Unhappily,  the  late  president  of 
the  Gobierno  de  la  Republica  is  a  man  of  weak  health; 
he  frequently  spits  blood  when  hard  pressed  by  work, 
and  is,  besides,  a  man  of  that  cast  of  character  to  which 
the  late  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill  belonged :  personal  grief  intensely 
affects  the  whole  of  his  being,  and  absorbs,  for  a  long 
time,  all  other  feelings  and  thoughts.  In  April,  1873, 
a  few  days  before  the  coup  cVetat  of  the  23d,  Senor  Fi- 
gueras lost  his  wife,  and  his  grief  was  so  intense  that 
when  I  saw  him  about  three  weeks  later  he  spoke  as  a 
man  who  had  perfectly  made  up  his  mind  to  leave  his 
post  as  soon  as  it  was  in  any  way  possible,  and  even  to 
leave  the  country.     He  was  quite  ill  then,  and  departed 


348  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

soon  afterwards  to  a  Pyrenean  watering-place  —  a  cir- 
cumstance which  caused  his  enemies  to  spread  the  ab- 
surd rumor  that  he  had  taken  to  flight. 

The  intimate  friendship  which  seems,  at  all  times,  to 
have  existed  between  Senor  Oastelar  and  Sefior  Figue- 
ras,  was  not  in  any  v/ay  affected  by  the  latter  with- 
drawing from  power  and  the  former  becoming  a  dicta- 
tor. At  all  events,  during  the  celebrated  sitting  of 
September  18,  1873,  Senor  Oastelar  still  spoke  in  the 
warmest  possible  terms  of  his  "illustrious  and  beloved 
friend,  Senor  Figueras ; "  and,  as  far  as  I  know,  the 
political  opinions  of  the  two  friends  are  still  almost 
identical.  There  is  this  difference,  however,  between 
the  two  men,  that  Senor  Figueras  was  always  possessed 
of  considerably  greater  self-command,  v/hile  the  elo- 
quent Don  Emilio  was  rather  apt  to  whip  himself  into 
passion  by  means  of  his  own  rhetoric,  as  a  lion  is  sup- 
posed to  do  with  his  own  tail. 

But,  strange  to  say,  though  Senor  Oastelar  was  al- 
ways a  theorist,  had  spent  the  greater  portion  of  his 
life  as  professor  at  the  Madrid  University,  and  must 
naturally  have  thought  himself,  and  has  been  thought 
by  other  people,  to  be,  at  least  to  a  certain  extent,  a 
philosopher,  he  never  showed  any  great  respect  to  phi- 
losophy as  a  science.  This  is,  for  instance,  what  he 
said  of  Hegel  and  his  followers :  — 

"  When  I  contemplate  these  scientific  systems,  life 
in  them  appears  to  me  a  river  without  source  and  with- 
out issue,  rolling  its  waves  eternally  through  a  pur- 
poseless channel.  The  world  of  the  future  needs  an 
ideal.  An  ideal  cannot  be  v/ithout  ideas,  and  ideas 
can  only  be  found  in  the  unconditional,  the  absolute," 


CASTELAR  AND  FIGUERAS,  349 

In  fact,  the  piety  of  Senor  Castelar  strongly  distin- 
guished him  from  the  vast  majority  of  his  colleagues, 
and  Senor  Pi  y  Margall,  among  others,  went  so  far  as 
to  publicly  sneer  at  him  in  the  Cortes  for  having  in- 
voked God's  help  in  favor  of  the  republic.  There 
was  nothing  new,  however,  in  this  display  of  religious 
feeling  on  the  part  of  the  dictator,  for  long  before  he 
asked  the  Almighty  to  interfere  in  Spanish  politics,  he 
wrote,  — 

"  I  have  never  believed  that  to  dethrone  the  kings 
of  the  earth  it  was  necessary  to  destroy  the  idea  of 
God  in  the  conscience,  nor  the  hope  of  immortality  in 
the  soul.  I  have  always  believed  the  contrary  —  that 
souls  deprived  of  these  great  principles  fall  collapsed 
in  the  mire  of  the  earth,  to  be  trodden  by  the  beasts 
that  perish.  Give  to  man  a  great  idea  of  himself,  tell 
him  that  he  bears  God  in  his  conscience  and  immor- 
tality in  his  life,  and  you  will  see  him  rise  by  this  forti- 
fied sentiment  of  his  dignity  to  reclaim  those  rights 
which  assure  him  the  noblest  independence  of  his  being 
in  society  and  in  nature." 

Of  the  nature  of  Seiior  Castelar's  eloquence  it  would 
"be  by  no  means  easy  to  convey  here  an  idea.  It  is  in- 
comparably more  bewildering  and  verbose  than  any- 
thing known  in  America,  England,  or  France.  Fancy, 
for  instance,  a  passage  like  this  uttered  in  a  thundering 
voice  and  at  one  breath,  as  if  there  had  been  in  the 
whole  of  it  neither  a  stop  nor  a  comma :  — 

"  The  French  democracy  has  a  glorious  lineage  of 
ideac  —  the  ecience  of  Descartes^  the  criticisms  of  Vol- 
taire, the  pen  cf  Rousseau,  the  monumental  Encyclo- 
paedia; and  the  Anglo-Saxon  democracy  has  for  its 


350  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

only  lineage  a  book  of  a  primitive  society  —  the  Bible. 
The  French  democracy  is  the  product  of  all  modern 
philosophy,  is  the  brilliant  crystal  condensed  in  the 
alembic  of  science ;  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  democracy 
is  the  product  of  a  severe  theology  learned  by  the  few 
Christian  fugitives  in  the  gloomy  cities  of  Holland  and 
of  Switzerland,  where  the  morose  shade  of  Calvin  still 
wanders.  The  French  democracy  comes  with  its  cohort 
of  illustrious  tribunes  and  artists,  that  bring  to  mind 
the  days  of  Greece  and  the  days  of  the  Renaissance  — 
Mirabeau,  the  tempest  of  ideas;  Vergniaud,  the  melody 
of  speech ;  Danton,  the  burning  lava  of  the  spirit ; 
Camille  Desmoulins,  the  immortal  Camille,  brilliant 
truant  of  Athens,  with  a  chisel  in  place  of  the  pen,  a 
species  of  animated  bass-relief  of  the  Parthenon.  And 
the  Anglo-Saxon  democracy  comes  with  an  army  of 
modest  talent  —  Otis,  the  unassuming  publicist ;  Jeffer- 
son, the  practical  orator ;  Franklin,  common  sense  in- 
carnate —  all  simple  as  nature,  patient  and  tenacious 
as  labor.  The  French  democracy  improvises  fourteen 
armies,  gains  epic  battles,  creates  generals  like  Du- 
mouriez,  the  hero  of  Jemmapes;  like  Messeua,  the  hero 
of  Zurich;  like  Bonaparte,  general  of  generals,  the 
hero  of  heroes.  The  Anglo-Saxon  democracy  sustains 
a  war  of  various  fortunes,  brings  together  little  armies, 
makes  campaigns  of  little  brilliancy,  and  has  for  its 
only  general  Washington,  whose  glory  is  more  in  the 
council  than  in  the  field,  whose  name  will  be  enrolled 
rather  among  great  citizens  than  among  great  heroes. 
Nevertheless,  the  French  democracy,  that  legion  of  im- 
mortals, has  passed  like  an  orgie  of  the  human  spirit 
drunken  with  ideas,  like  a  Homeric  battle,  where  all 


CASTELAR  AND  FIGUBRAS.  851 

the  combatants,  crowned  with  laurel,  have  died  on 
their  chiselled  shields  ;  while  the  Anglo-Saxon  democ- 
racy, that  legion  of  workers,  remains  serenely  in  its 
grandeur.  A  parallel  which  reveals  the  brilliant  means 
and  scanty  results  of  the  one,  and  the  scanty  means 
and  brilliant  results  of  the  other  —  an  instructive  par- 
allel written  in  history  with  indelible  characters,  to 
teach  us  that  the  French  democracy  was  lost  by  its 
worship  of  the  state,  by  its  centralization,  by  its  neg- 
lect of  the  municipality,  of  the  rights  of  districts,  and 
even  the  rights  of  individuals  ;  while  the  Anglo-Saxon 
democracy  was  saved  by  having  in  the  first  place 
founded  the  rights  of  man,  and  afterwards  the  organized 
and  self-governing  municipality,  and  finally,  a  series  of 
counties  and  states  also  self-governing,  powerful  instru- 
ments by  which  authority  was  united  to  liberty,  giving 
us  the  model  of  the  modern  polity." 

This  tirade  is,  perhaps,  all  the  more  a  fair  specimen 
of  Senor  Castelar's  eloquence  as  he  is  evidently  him- 
self in  love  with  it,  for  he  delivered  it  in  the  Constitu- 
ent Cortes  in  1870,  and  introduced  it,  subsequently,  in 
1872,  in  his  Harper's  and  Fortnightly  Review  articles. 
An  interval  of  two  years  was  apparently  not  suflicient  to 
show  him  the  vagueness  and  inaccuracy  of  the  state- 
ments contained  in  the  passage.  Although  a  professor 
of  history,  he  seems  never  to  have  known  what  impar- 
tial, critical,  or  even  simply  accurate  history  was. 
Events  and  names  of  the  past  seem  to  interest  him 
only  inasmuch  as  they  can  serve  him  in  his  exquisite, 
but  very  fantastical  work  of  illustration.  Like  some 
of  the  pictures  of  Gustavo  Dore,  which  are  beautiful 
and  full  of  life,  without  ever  being  life-like  in  the  sense 


352  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

of  resembling  anything  we  know  in  actuality,  so  is 
Seiior  Castelar's  history.  And  he  seems  to  consider  such 
a  use  of  historical  materials  quite  a  legitimate  one. 

"  The  revolution  of  1854  (writes  he)  had  the  result 
of  organizing  the  Republican  party  throughout  the 
Peninsula.  The  spread  of  the  new  ideas  at  this  time 
was  enormous.  Journals  inspired  with  the  purest 
faith,  written  with  convincing  eloquence,  fighting 
against  the  reactionary  parties  with  a  tenacious  and 
skilful  propaganda,  excited  extraordinary  interest. 
Learned,*  polished,  popular,  and  literary,  they  were  at 
once  the  focus  of  light  and  the  nucleus  of  organization. 
The  chairs  in  the  universities,  gained  by  disciples  of 
the  new  ideas,  contributed  powerfully  to  the  diffusion 
of  light.  Thanks  to  them,  history  assumed  a  progres- 
sive and  humanitarian  tendency.  They  redeemed  the 
traditionc  of  the  country  from  their  monarchical  char- 
acter, and  reinvested  them  in  the  light  of  new  science 
with  the  democratic  character." 

Quite  recently,  when  reprimanding  the  ultra-Repub- 
licans in  the  Cortes  for  their  want  of  moderation,  ho 
exclaimed,  with  vehemence,  — 

"Ah,  gentlemen,  how  sad  the  spectacle  we  have 
presented  as  a  party  in  Europe !  All  that  we  have 
initiated,  the  Conservatives  have  realized  !  Who  strug- 
gled for  the  self-government  of  the  Hungarian  nation  ? 
A  Republican,  Kossuth.  Who  realized  it?  A  Con- 
servative, Deak.  Who  sustained  the  idea  of  the  abo- 
lition of  serfdom  in  Russia  ?    A  Republican,  Hertzen. 

*  To  those  who  know  what  Spanish  journalism  is  like  in  mat- 
ter of  learning,  this  passage  must  seem  particularly  naXve. 


CASTELAR  AND  FIGUERAS,        ,      353 

Who  realized  it  ?  An  Emperor,  Alexander.  Who 
sustained  the  idea  of  the  unity  of  Italy  ?  A  Republi- 
can, Mazzini.  Who  realized  it  ?  A  Conservative,  Ca- 
vour.  Who  promoted  the  idea  of  the  Unity  of  Ger- 
many? The  Republicans  of  Frankfort.  Who  real- 
ized it  ?  An  Imperialist,  Bismarck.  Who  aroused  the 
thrice-suffocated  Republican  idea  in  France,  after  the 
first  republic  being  a  tempest,  tlie  second  a  dream,  and 
the  third  but  a  name  ?  A  poet,  Victor  Hugo,  a  great 
orator,  Jules  Favre,  and  another  great  orator,  Gara- 
betta.  Who  consolidated  it?  A  Conservative,  Thiers. 
And  whose  sharp  sword  now  protects  it?  That  of  a 
General  of  the  Caesars,  McMahon. " 

It  never  occurred  to  him  that  the  thing  he  com- 
plained of  here  was  merely  the  natural  course  of  hu- 
man affairs.  Historical  studies  had  not  taught  him 
that  it  was  invariably,  throughout  all  ages,  the  duty  of 
the  advanced  party  to  "initiate"  progress,  to  spread 
new  notions,  as  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Conservative 
party  to  "  realize "  innovations,  when  the  people  be- 
came sufficiently  prepared  to  receive  them.  If  Kos- 
suth, Ilertzen,  Mazzini,  or  Victor  Hugo  had  ever  had 
to  put  into  practice  the  objects  of  their  advocacy,  they 
would  have  certainly  experienced  the  same  failures  Se- 
nor  Castelar  had  so  patriotically  exposed  himself  to. 


How  very  different  from  his  illustrious  friend  is  the 

quiet,   practical,   non-generalizing   Figueras !      Not   a 

word  would  you  ever  hear  from  him  that  is  not  to  the 

point;  not  a  statement  that  has  not  a  direct  bearing 

23 


854  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

on  the  actual  condition  of  his  country.  Willingly 
though  he  speaks,  you  invariably  feel  you  are  convers- 
ing, not  listening  to  a  prepared  speech.  In  the  begin- 
ning of  May,  he  foretold  me,  for  instance,  in  one  of 
those  conversations  I  shall  always  remember  with  the 
greatest  j^leasure,  almost  everything  that  has  happened 
since,  through  the  obstinacy  of  men  like  Serrano  and 
those  who  sided  with  him.  He  foresaw  then  that  the 
Intransigentes  w^ould  rise  all  over  the  country,  and  that 
a  new  coup-d"' etat,  and  a  fierce  reaction,  would  be  the 
conclusion  of  several  months'  bloodshed. 

"  The  representatives  of  Conservative  opinions,"  said 
he,  "  are  acting  in  the  most  foolish  and  unpatriotic 
manner.  They  seem  to  have  learned  nothing  from 
past  experience.  It  was  at  all  times  the  strategy  of 
the  Conservative  opposition  in  this  country  to  create  a 
vacuum  around  the  existing  Liberal  power,  and  the 
invariable  result  was,  that  when  this  power  fell  it  was 
not  to  make  room  for  those  who  created  the  vacuum, 
but  for  the  party  still  more  advanced  than  that  which 
was  overthrown.  By  creating,  now^,  a  vacuum  around 
us,  they  will  not  open  a  road  to  themselves,  but  to  the 
demagogues  only ;  while,  by  accepting  the  existing 
fact  of  a  Spanish  republic,  and  by  setting  at  work  on 
the  opposition  benches,  they  would  have  balanced  the 
forces,  and  have  done  certainly  more  good  to  the  coun- 
try than  they  could,  perhaps,  themselves  believe.  They 
are  almost  sure  to  cause  blood  to  be  shed  now,  while 
then  they  would  have  been  almost  as  sure  to  lead  the 
country  to  order  and  national  regeneration,  had  they 
courageously  accepted  the  republic." 

On  my  asking  him  whether  he  considered  that  the 


CAS  TEL  AR  AND   FIGUERAS.  355 

anti-Republican  party  had  many  members  whose  ser- 
vices could  be  rendered  available  by  the  republic, 
"  Certainly,"  answered  he,  "  though  it  is  not  particu- 
larly pleasant  for  a  Republican  to  make  such  an  avowal; 
but  I  cannot  deny  the  fact  that  the  ablest  statesmen 
Spain  possesses  are  in  the  ranks  of  the  Conservatives 
and  Monarchists.  Our  party  has  still  to  try  its  forces 
and  to  show  its  abilities.  We  have  not  been  as  yet 
organized,  nor  have  we  even  known  each  other.  I 
know,  for  instance,  the  Republicans  of  my  province, 
Catalonia,  and  they  know  me,  for  we  were^the  first 
to  begin  the  Republican  agitation  some  thirty  years 
ago;  but  we  know  scarcely  anything  about  the  Re- 
publicans of  other  provinces,  nor  they  about  us.  Con- 
sequently, we  have  to  make  each  other's  acquaint- 
ance yet,  and  to  try  each  other's  abilities,  for  scarcely 
any  one  of  us  had  occasion  to  show  them — practically, 
I  mean ;  for  in  the  sphere  of  theory  our  party  has  done 
something  already.  The  best  contemporary  Spanish 
writers  belong  to  our  party,  but  the  most  experienced 
and  skilful  statesmen  must  be  as  yet  acknowledged  to 
be  in  the  opposite  camp. 

"The  Conservatives  call  me  a  demagogue;  but  I 
can  assure  you  that  I  am  no  more  a  demagogue  than 
M.  Thiers  or  Mr.  Gladstone.  I  differ  from  them  only 
in  my  firm  belief  that  a  federal  republic  is  the  best 
form  of  government  for  Spain.  But  I  believe  just  as 
firmly  that  a  federal  republic  can  be  established  with- 
out any  wild  socialistic  theories  being  brought  forward. 
So  far,  indeed,  am  I  and  my  colleagues  from  being 
demagogues,  that  it  was  our  sincere  wish  to  bring  a 
hundred  or  so  Conservative  deputies  into  the  Assembly, 
to  form  a  sensible  and  powerful  opposition.     The  ques- 


356  SPAIN  AND    THE  SPANIARDS. 

tion  was  deliberated  in  the  council  of  ministers  whether 
we  should  be  right  in  encouraging  some  of  the  Con- 
servatives to  come  forward,  and  in  giving  them  such 
support  as  we  could.  And  if  we  resolved  not  to  do 
BO,  it  was  only  because  of  the  unmanageably  hostile 
attitude  of  the  Conservatives. 

"The  foreign  powers  are  now  exchanging  diplomatic 
despatches  in  reference  to  the  republic.  They  are,  of 
course,  anxious  to  see  a  monarchy  re-established  in  this 
country,  because  they  don't  know  anything  about  the 
real  state  of  our  parties  and  the  condition  of  Spain. 
Insisting  still  on  a  monarchy,  they  do  not,  however, 
object  as  strongly  as  they  did  formerly  to  a  republic, 
provided  this  republic  is  called  '  Conservative,'  and  is 
copied  from  what  M.  Thiers  has  established  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Pyrenees.  The  old  gentleman  has 
managed  to  reconcile  the  European  potentates  with  this 
form  of  government,  and  has  made  them  understand 
that  a  republic  is  not  necessarily  anarchy.  But  what 
they  cannot  make  up  their  minds  about  is  the  word 
'federal.'  They  think  it  must  mean  something  very 
undesirable.  They  don't  take  the  slightest  notice  when 
they  are  told  that  America  and  Switzerland  are  Re- 
publican federations.  They  simply  answer  you,  '  The 
cases  are  quite  different  there,'  and  they  think  they 
have  said  everything  and  refuted  all  the  arguments 
you  may  adduce.  ^ 

"  The  other  day  the  German  and  Russian  emperors, 
paying  each  other  compliments  at  St.  Petersburg,  did 
our  minister  at  that  court  the  honor  of  talking  to  him. 
They  said  they  greatly  desired  that  safety  and  order 
should  be  restored  in  Spain,  and  bloodshed  ended. 
The  minister  answered  them  that  the  Spanish  govern- 


CASTE LAR  AND  FIGUERAS.  857 

ment  was  doing  its  best  to  achieve  these  ends.  But  I 
said  to  my  friend,  Senor  Castelar,  on  receiving  the 
report  of  this  conversation,  that  if  I  had  been  in  the 
place  of  the  Spanish  ambassador,  I  would  have  an- 
swered their  majesties  that  we  had  as  much  safety  and 
order  as  ever,  and  that  till  now  we  have  had  no  blood- 
shed at  all,  even  not  so  much  as  there  was  the  other 
day  in  Frankfort  in  connection  with  some  beer,  or  as 
there  is  always  in  Kussia,  whenever  a  dozen  people 
assemble  to  discuss  any  public  grievance,  and  whole 
regiments  are  sent  out  to  *  restore  order.' 

"My  poor  friend,  Senor  Castelar,  who  is  very  impres- 
sionable, as  you  know,  is  getting  quite  nervous  under 
the  influence  of  the  information  he  gets  from  our  min- 
isters abroad.  It  looks  as  if  we  were  going  to  receive 
some  strong-worded  notes  one  of  these  days  on  the 
subject  of  the  word  '  FederaP  as  compared  with  'Con- 
servative,' and  I  am  very  glad  that  the  Assembly  will 
probably  meet  by  the  time  we  receive  these  docu- 
ments." 

Truly  speaking,  I  seldom  saw  a  man  less  subject  to 
illusions  than  the  late  president  of  the  executive 
power,  notwithstanding  his  having  spent  the  whole  of 
his  life  in  the  defence  of  a  cause  which  at  times  seemed 
very  illusory  indeed.  To  him,  for  instance,  belongs  the 
honor  of  having  first  published  the  Spanish  Budget,  dis- 
regarding the  advice  of  a  good  many  of  his  friends  not 
to  do  so  until  the  republic  had  been  more  firmly  estab- 
lished. "  What  is  the  use  of  deceiving  ourselves  and 
other  people?"  was  his  answer;  and  a  few  days  later 
the  Gaceta  de  J/ac^nc?  contained  the  avowal  of  a  debt  of 
something  like  seventeen  liundred  and  fifty  million  dol- 
lars.    He  said  to  me   that  he  became  quite  frightened 


858  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

for  the  life  of  the  republic  when  he  first  saw  the  true: 
accounts  of  the  treasury.  "This  is,"  said  he,  "our  weak- 
est point ;  and,  assuming  that  I  speak  to  you,  not  as 
the  president  of  the  Spanish  republic,  but  simply  as 
Seiior  Figueras,  I  would  say  that,  though  our  financial 
position  can  certainly  be  improved  by  ourselves,  a 
complete  financial  regeneration  of  Spain  is  possible 
only  with  the  aid  of  America.  But  do  not  suppose 
that,  when  I  say  that  American  enterprise  and  Ameri- 
can gold  can  alone  regenerate  the  finances  of  Spain,  I 
mean  in  any  way  to  allude  to  Cuba.  That  island  must 
be  left  quite  out  of  the  question  at  the  present  mo- 
ment. As  both  Carlist  and  Alfonsist  leaders  told  you, 
so  must  I  tell  you  too,  that  no  government  will  dare, 
at  the  present  moment,  to  projDOse  any  arrangement 
aflfecting  in  any  way  the  extent  of  the  Spanish  domin- 
ions ;  and  this  was  one  of  the  reasons  for  my  having  put 
so  much  '  territorial  integrity,'  as  you  said,  in  my  ofii- 
cial  answer  to  the  congratulations  of  General  Sickles 
the  other  day.  Our  enemies  were  spreading  rumors 
that  we  were  arranging  the  sale  of  Cuba  in  an  under- 
hand manner,  and  I  had  to  answer  them.  My  private 
conviction  is,  that  Cuba  is  lost  for  us,  and  that  in  a 
quarter  of  a  century  eveiy  Spaniard  will  believe  that 
Cuba's  becoming  independent  or  joining  the  States  was 
quite  a  natural  thing,  as  he  now  believes  it  to  be  the 
most  unpatriotic  and  criminal  idea  ever  conceived." 

If  the  Spanish  republic  is  ever  to  replace  the  new 
monarchy  of  Alfonso,  Castelar  and  Figueras  are  sure 
to  be  restored  to  power.  The  public  may  thus  again 
become  interested  in  them,  and,  perhaps,  excuse  me 
then  for  my  having  allotted  so  much  space  to  men  who 
are  at  present  only  two  fallen  stars. 


MARSHAL   SERRANO,  359 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

MAESHAL    SEERANO,    DUQUE   DE   LA   TOEEE. 

THE  kindness  with  which  I  was  received  by  the 
Duchess  de  la  Torre  at  her  Biarritz  villa,  almost 
precludes  nie  from  the  possibility  of  speaking  of  the 
marshal  and  duke,  her  husband.  His  political  opinions 
and  the  whole  of  his  early  career  were  such  as  to  de- 
serve but  little  sympathy;  yet  the  charms  of  his  personal 
intercourse  are  so  great  as  to  captivate  even  his  bit- 
terest enemies  when  they  approach  him.  Handsome, 
exquisitely  elegant,  and  of  an  ease  of  manners  almost 
bordering  on  plainness,  he  bribes  you  in  his  favor  from 
the  very  first  words  you  exchange  with  him.  His  habit 
of  unceremoniously  receiving  the  stranger  in  the  family 
drawing-room,  with  his  fascinating  lady  painting  or 
embroidering,  and  his  children  playing  and  rushing  in 
and  out,  makes  the  visitor  not  only  forget,  but  almost 
disbelieve,  all  that  is  said  of  the  marshal's  past.  Spanish 
political  careers  are,  as  a  rule,  rather  exciting;  and  that 
of  the  marshal  was  quite  a  romance,  which  is  still  to  be 
written.  The  political  and  personal  circumstances  of 
the  hero  of  this  romance  will  no  doubt  justify  his  past 
conduct ;  but  at  present  too  little  is  known  of  them,  and 
consequently  the  less  said  of  the  subject  the  better. 
Marshal  Serrano  is  now  sixty-five  years  of  age,  hav- 


860  SPAIN  AND    THE   SPANIARDS. 

ing  been  born  near  Cadiz  in  1810.  His  father  was  a  dis- 
tinguished general,  and  held  a  high  command  during 
the  war  of  independence.  The  young  Don  Francisco 
Serrano  entered  military  service  as  a  cadet  at  the  early 
age  of  twelve,  soon  became  a  lieutenant,  and  at  the 
death  of  Fei-dinand  VII.,  declared  himself  for  the  re- 
gency of  Queen  Christina,  and  joined  the  army  operat- 
ing against  Don  Carlos  in  Aragon.  He  went  all  through 
that  campaign,  occupying  various  positions  on  the 
staiF,  and  gaining  rank  and  distinction  with  quite  an 
amazing  celerity.  He  was  colonel  before  he  reached 
his  twenty-fifth  year,  and  when  the  Carlist  war  was 
brought  to  a  close  and  he  returned  to  Madrid,  his  hand- 
some face,  the  elegance  of  his  manners,  and  his  reputa- 
tion for  bravery  made  him  soon  the  beau  ideal  of  all 
the  Madrid  ladies,  whose  favors  he  freely  enjoyed  for 
about  a  year,  and  turned  up  in  1840  at  Barcelona 
as  brigadier-general  and  commander-in-chief  of  the 
troops  of  Catalonia.  He  was  then  supposed  to  be 
an  intimate  friend  of  Espartero,  declared  himself  in 
favor  of  his  regency,  and  thus  greatly  contributed  to 
the  overthrow  of  Christina.  Three  years  later,  how- 
ever, we  see  him  taking  flight  in  disguise  to  the  same 
Barcelona,  seizing  there  the  command,  and  overthrow- 
ing Espartero.  That  was  his  first  great  and  uncere- 
monious ^tep  towards  power.  He  became  now  a  lieu- 
tenant-general, and  soon  gained  the  heart  of  the  young 
lady  who  was  sitting  upon  the  throne,  and  married, 
thanks  to  Anglo-French  rivalries,  to  the  only  man  she 
could  never  stand.  The  young  and  brilliant  general,  it 
is  said,  readily  undertook  the  task  of  consoling  his 
sovereign  for  her  matrimonial  unhappiness,  and  distinc- 


MARSHAL   SERRANO.  861 

tion  and  wealth  began  to  pour  upon  him  more  amply 
than  ever. 

He  had  received  from  the  hand  of  Isabella  every- 
thing it  was  in  her  power  to  give.  He  was  general  of 
division  at  thirty-two  years  of  age.  A  couple  of  years 
later  he  was  senator.  When  his  personal  relations 
with  the  young  queen  had  been  broken  off,  he  was 
gently  sent  as  captain-general  to  Granada,  instead  of 
being  simply  murdered  or  banished,  both  of  which 
would  have  been  extremely  easy  things  to  do.  Subse- 
quently, every  year  brought  upou  him  some  new  dis- 
tinctions. He  was  captain-general  of  the  artillery, 
captain-general  of  Castile,  ambassador  at  Paris,  captain- 
general  of  Cuba ;  in  1862  he  was  created  Duque  de  la 
Torre,  in  1865  he  was  president  of  the  Senate  —  all  this 
without  reckoning  sundry  other  important  posts  he 
occupied.  True,  that  in  1866,  when  Isabella  had  lost 
all  control  over  the  affairs  of  the  state,  Narvaez  arrested 
Serrano  among  other  leaders  of  the  opposition,  and  had 
him  sent  to  Port  Mahon.  But  Marshal  Serrano  knew 
perfectly  well  how  little  Isabella  was  capable  of  oppos- 
ing the  will  of  Narvaez,  and  how  great  was  the  dislike 
of  that  ruler  of  Spain  to  the  fortunate  and  handsome 
marshal. 

There  is  a  story  that  when  Narvaez  was  dying,  and 
his  confessor,  praying  by  his  bedside,  advised  him  to 
forgive  his  enemies,  the  expiring  proconsul  of  Isabella 
whispered,  "  My  enemies  ?  I  have  none.  I  shot  them 
all.  Serrano  only  has  escaped."  If  the  story  is  an  in- 
vention, it,  at  all  events*  gives  a  good  idea  of  the  feel- 
ings which  existed  between  Narvaez  and  the  leader  of 
the  so-called  Liberal  Union  party.     The  scene  might 


§62  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

be  still  remembered  by  many  newspaper  readers,  when 
in  1866  Narvaez  had  suspended  the  constitutional 
guarantees,  and  the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Deputies 
issued  their  protests.  Isabella  asked  that  Marshal 
Serrano,  as  president  of  the  Senate,  should  call  upon  her. 
They  had  not  spoken  to  each  other  for  a  long  time,  and 
it  was  now  supposed  some  better  understanding  might 
result  from  the  interview.  The  marshal  wanted,  evi- 
dently, to  take  power  into  his  own  hands,  or,  at  all 
events,  to  preserve  it  in  the  hands  of  his  friend  O'Don- 
nell,  and  probably  spoke  frankly  in  that  sense.  But 
Karvaez,  who  was  hidden  behind  a  curtain,  and  listened 
to  the  conversation,  did  not  mean  to  yield,  and  the 
marshal  had  scarcely  returned  home  from  the  palace, 
when  he  was  invited  to  proceed  to  the  Balearic  Islands. 
If  I  rightly  remember,  he  never  reached  them,  and  had 
simply  to  spend  a  couple  of  weeks  in  the  miHtary  prison 
of  Alicante.  Yet  the  fact  of  his  having  been  treated  in 
that  w^ay  seemed  quite  sufficient  to  the  marshal  for  his 
finally  breaking  with  the  queen,  bringing  about  a  co- 
alition of  his  own  party  with  the  Progressists  and  the 
Democrats,  concluding  an  alliance  with  Prim  and 
Topete,  beating  Isabella's  troops  at  Alcolea,  and  caus- 
ing her  to  take  flight  to  France  almost  as  precipitately 
as  he  had  done  himself  in  April,  1873. 

In  any  other  country,  and  under  any  other  circum- 
stances. Marshal  Serrano  would  probably  never  have 
reached  the  position  he  occupies  once  more.  But  the 
misconduct  of  the  Ex-Queen  Isabella,  and  the  misgov- 
ernment  to  which  she  exposed  poor  Spain,  caused 
Spaniards  to  forgive  the  marshal  what  they  seldom 
forgive  any  man  —  the  want  of  gallantry  to  a  woman. 


MARSHAL   SERRANO.  363 

The  marshal  has  married  since  he  enjoyed  the  favors 
of  Isabella.  He  has  several  children,  he  is  getting  old, 
and  is  supposed  to  be  an  able  man,  and  the  Spaniards 
obey  him  in  the  hope  that  he  will  give  them  peace  and 
order.  How  far  they  are  right  is  another  question.. 
But  sure  it  is  that,  of  all  living  Spanish  statesmen,  the 
Duke  de  la  Torre  has  the  most  pliable  and  accommo- 
dating political  conscience,  and  that  may  prove  a  great 
advantage  just  now.  We  all  know  him  to  have  been 
Conservative,  moderate-Liberal,  ultra-Liberal,  and  must 
not  lose  the  hope  of  seeing  him  a  Republican,  provided 
power  is  left  in  his  hands. 

The  marshal's  career  since  September,  1868,  is  still 
fresh  in  everybody's  memory.  Prim  and  himself  held 
unlimited  power  until  a  specially  elected  Cortes  re- 
solved upon  the  maintenance  of  monarchy,  and  the 
Duke  of  Aosta  was  finally  asked  to  come  and  plant  in 
Spanish  soil  the  root  of  a  new  dynasty.  Marshal  Ser- 
rano served  for  some  time  the  new  king,  but  his  notions 
of  constitutional  liberties  were  vastly  different  from' 
those  of  Amadeo.  His  asking  for  the  suspension  of 
constitutional  guarantees  (a  thing  against  which  he 
fought  formerly)  was  the  first  step  towards  the  "inof- 
fensive Italian's "  getting  disgusted  with  Spain.  The 
Duque  de  la  Torre  retired,  and  the  radicals,  Sagasta 
and  Zorrilla,  were  alternately  called  to  power.  The 
marshal  would  under  no  circumstances  take  office 
with  them  at  the  time,  but  he  seems  to  have  changed 
his  mind  since,  for  they  worked  together  until  Alfonso 
took  Serrano's  place. 

It  is  well  known  that,  if  the  marshal  was  ever  willing 
to  give  power  to  any  one  except  himself,  it  was  to  the 


364  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

Duke  of  Montpensier.  To  join  the  ranks  of  the  young 
Alfonso  was  never  and  will  hardly  ever  be  possible  for 
him  as  long  as  Isabella  lives  ;  unless  the  rich  Conserva- 
tives and  the  nobility,  almost  all  of  whom  are  largely 
interested  in  Cuba,  will  strongly  abide  by  him,  because 
they  have  learned,  by  experience,  during  Amadeo's 
reign,  that  the  constitutional  monarchy  is  much  more 
likely  to  be  injurious  to  the  slaveholders'  interest  than 
Marshal  Serrano  will  ever  be.  I  firmly  believe  that  the 
duke's  views  on  this  question  are  much  less  advar.ced 
than  even  those  of  Don  Carlos  ;  and  if  he  is  to  work  up 
the  abolition  question,  he  is  sure  to  do  it  in  such  a  way 
that  the  slaveholders  will  rather  benefit  than  lose  by 
the  reform.  But  though  he  has  at  this  moment  quietly 
surrendered  his  place  to  Don  Alfonso,  and  retired  to 
his  Biarritz  villa,  his  career  is  not  over  yet.  Let  ns 
wait,  then,  to  speak  of  him  until  he  has  shown  the  full 
extent  of  his  diplomatic  ability  by  becoming  the  prime 
minister  of  the  son  of  the  woman  he  has  so  abominably 
treated. 


ADIOSl  365 


CHAPTER  XYIII. 

ADIOS  ! 

A  PERFECT  fright,  not  to  say  a  terror,  seized  me 
at  the  conchision  of  the  preceding  chapter,  when 
I  noticed  that  I  was  speedily  approaching  the  orthodox 
limits  of  the  volume,  and  had  scarcely  said  a  word  on 
what  I  wished  to  speak  of  when  I  set  to  work.  Instead 
of  writing  something  "nicely  descriptive"  of  Spain 
and  the  Spaniards,  I  find  myself  to  have  written  a 
series  of  dull  recollections  of  Spain,  and  of  still  duller 
essays  on  Spanish  subjects.  But,  as  Vhabitne  fait  pas 
le  moine,  so  the  title  does  not  make  the  book ;  and  pro- 
vided these  humble  pages  are  found  readable,  and  con- 
taining something  which  has  not  been  already  too 
frequently  said,  I  shall  feel  just  as  happy  as  if  I  had 
written  something  really  good  and  in  harmony  with 
the  title. 

In  countries  with  such  a  prolific  literature  as  the 
American  or  English,  scarcely  any  author  can  consider 
himself  as  writing  anything  new.  However  great  his 
pretensions  and  his  efforts  to  be  original  or  novel,  he  is 
always  a  mere  supplement  to  an  endless  number  of 
other  writers  on  the  same  topic;  and  Spanish  subjects 
are  in  no  way  an  exception  to  this  rule,  for  there  are, 
at  least,  five  or  six  works  published  every  year  on  tliat 


866  SPAIN  AND    THE  SPANIARDS. 

country,  not  to  mention  the  endless  magazine  and  ne\Y's- 
paper  articles.  Yet,  though  much  studied,  Spain  does 
not  seem  to  g^in  in  the  affections  of  strangers.  With 
a  very  few  exceptions,  the  great  majority  of  writers 
upon  Spain  delight  in  describing  the  charms  of  the 
Spanish  climate,  the  beauties  of  Spanish  scenery,  and 
'the  treasures  in  arts  and  monuments  which  the  country 
has  preserved ;  but  few  have  anything  good  to  say  of 
the  Spanish  people. 

The  faults  which  foreign  writers  find  with  Spain  and 
the  Spaniards  are  manifold  and  various.  Some  of  them, 
like  the  usually  so  sparkling  and  exhilarating  Mr. 
George  Augustus  Sala,  for  instance,  would,  all  at  once, 
turn  acid  and  get  equally  displeased  with  everything 
Spanish,  and  emphatically  exclaim,  "  I  would  not  bring 
my  maiden  aunt,  I  would  not  bring  my  spinster  cousin, 
I  would  not  bring  any  lady  (unless  she  were  another  Ida 
Pfeiffer,  or  Lady  Hester  Stanhope),  to  the  town,  or  the 
inn,  or  the  room  in  which  I  am  now  dwelling."  Others, 
like  the  somewhat  dreamy  but  amiable  Mr.  Henry 
Blackburn,  abhor  the  immoderate  use  the  Spaniards 
make  of  their  cigarettes,  and  cannot;  stand  the  practical 
joke  played  by  some  of  them  upon  foreigners  inquiring 
for  directions,  and  being,  in  the  Irish  fashion,  sent  the 
wrong  way.  It  would  appear  that  Mr.  Sala,  as  well  as 
Mr.  Blackburn  and  party,  underwent  the  same  disa- 
greeable process  of  being  sent  to  Alicante  when  they 
wanted  to  go  to  Cordova,  and  this  causes  Mr.  Black- 
burn bitterly  to  complain  that  no  "  A  B  C  "  guide,  or 
time  table,  exists  in  Spain  —  a  fact  which  simply  shows 
that  the  Spaniards  travel  little,  and  care  about  foreign- 
ers travelling  in  their  country  still  less. 


ADIOS I  367 

Another  writer,  Miss  Mary  Eyre,  is  still  more  merci- 
less towards  the  Spaniards.  This  lady  seems  to  have 
imdertaken  an  expedition  into  Spain  with  no  better 
companion  than  "  Keeper,"  her  little  dog.  She  trav- 
elled third  class,  j^robably  in  one  of  those  fearfully 
shaped  English  travelling  costumes  which  are  con- 
sidered very  comfortable  on  the  British  Isles,  but  which 
immensely  puzzle  Continental  eyes,  and,  apparently, 
without  any  considerable  knowledge  of  the  language 
of  the  country.  It  is  well  known  that  no  Spanish  lady 
is  ever  to  be  seen  alone,  even  on  a  walk,  still  less  on  a 
journey,  and  less  still  with  "a  nice  little  dog."  Miss 
Eyre  was,  consequently,  mistaken  for  "  una  loca,"  and 
sometimes  followed  by  a  batch  of  street  boys.  This 
greatly  annoying  her,  she  would  stop  and  try  to  deliver 
to  them  a  speech,  declaring  that  she  was  a  writer,  and 
that  she  would  tell  all  the  world  what  savages  the 
Spaniards  were ;  and  the  boys  would,  of  course,  laugh 
still  more,  and  annoy  her  still  more.  Miss  Eyre,  on  her 
return  to  England,  would  write  a  voluminous  manuscript 
abusive  of  the  Spaniard,  and  spread,  through  the  chan- 
nel of  circulating  libraries,  the  most  absurd  accusations 
against  the  nation,  of  which  even  the^eggar  is  a  gentle- 
man, if  you  know  how  to  appt^o^ach  Hm. 

If  English  ladies  could  only  imagine  what  a  fearful 
impression  is  produced  upon  the  Spaniard  when  he  sees, 
under  his  radiant  sky,  a  British  home-made  dress,  a 
pair  of  big,  "  comfortable,  solid  leather  boots,"  and  a 
mushroom-like,  black  straw  sun-hat,  they  would  forgive 
him  all  the  incivilities  he  might  have  proved  capable 
of,  in  a  moment  when  his  sense  of  beauty  was  so 
severely  hurt. 


368  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

But  if  there  are  thus  many  writers  invariably,  and 
for  many  reasons,  abusing  Spain,  there  are,  happily, 
plenty  of  others  who  make  you  love  that  sad  but 
lovely  country.  If  you  read,  for  instance,  the  now 
almost  classical  book  of  Mr.  Ford,  and  throw  out  of 
it  the  blind  worship  of  "  the  great  duke,"  the  ultra- 
patriotic  reverence  for  everything  English,  and  the 
blunders  which  are  the  inevitable  result  of  the  work 
being  a  very  old  one  now,  you  are  sure  to  like  Spain  ; 
and  you  will  do  so  still  more  if  you  read  the  inimitable 
book  of  Mr.  George  Borrow,  or  the  more  recent  work 
of  Mr.  Augustus  Hare;  while  the  sublime  chapter  in 
the  second  volume  of  Buckle's  "  History  of  Civiliza- 
tion "  will  make  you  appreciate  all  that  is  so  highly 
dramatic  in  the  existence  of  that  nation.  Your 
sympathy  for  Spain  and  the  Spaniards  will  be  in- 
creased to  the  extent  of  compelling  you  to  go  to  the 
Peninsula,  to  study  it,  to  enjoy  its  beauties,  to  live 
among  its  genial  and  generous  population  —  I  was 
almost  going  to  say,  to  ask  their  pardon  for  all  the 
wrongs  which  strangers  have  done  to  that  delightful 
country. 

Without  going  back  to  the  times  of  the  Goths  or  the 
Moors,  or  to  the  invasion  of  the  Austrian  dynasty,  or 
the  Bourbons,  take  only  the  present  century,  and  look 
how  long  it  is  since  Spain  has  been  left  alone.  The 
Peninsular  war  had  scarcely  terminated,  when  the  army 
of  the  Holy  Alliance,  forty  thousand  strong,  came  to 
"re-establish  order"  in  Spain,  and  to  remain  there  for 
several  years.  Scarcely  had  they  left  when  the  Seven 
Years'  War  broke  out,  and  an  Anglo-Franco-Portuguese 
invasion  took  place.      Christina   and  Isabella    ruled 


ADIOSl  369 

almost  exclusively  with  the  aid  of  foreign  diplomatists 
and  foreign  adventurers,  and  Madrid  became  quite  an 
arena  of  tournaments  between  Sir  Henry  Bulwer  and 
the  Comte  de  Bresson.  The  endless  political  parties 
which  have  been  bred  since  can  be  all  clearly  traced 
to  the  foreign  intrigues  and  interferences  in  the  begin- 
ning of  Isabella's  reign ;  and  the  sufferings  which  are 
now  inflicted  on  Spain  are  the  immediate  and  exclusive 
result  of  the  existence  of  these  parties.  How  long  is 
it  since  the  English  bombarded  refractory  Spanish 
towns?  I  know  a  good  many  old  Spaniards  who 
expressed  the  greatest  astonishment  that  now  the  same 
thing  had  not  taken  place  again,  and  the  seizure  of 
Spanish  ships  by  Captain  Werner  has  only  so  far  sur- 
prised them,  as  he  was  not  an  English  captain,  but  a 
German  one  —  that  is  to  say,  belonging  to  a  nation 
which  Spaniards  were  not  formerly  accustomed  to  see 
interfering  in  their  affairs,  and  which  to  their  minds 
had  been  brought  into  existence  only  since  the  time 
of  the  Hohenzollern  candidature. 

And,  after  all  that,  there  are  still  both  in  England 
and  France  no  end  of  people  abusing  the  Spaniards, 
and  "  calling  them  all  sorts  of  names  "  for  everything 
they  hear  of  them  —  to  begin  with,  their  inability  to 
adapt  themselves  to  the  parliamentary  form  of  govern- 
ment, and  to  end  with  the  fact  of  Madrid  ladies  giving 
up  the  mantilla  and  taking  to  Parisian  bonnets.  But 
who  first  brought  in,  and  without  ever  being  asked  to 
do  so,  both  the  modern  parliamentary  forms  and  the 
bonnets?  And  who  is  guilty  that  that  enchanted  land 
has  neither  remained  what  it  was,  nor  become  what 
strangers  wished  her  to  be,  losing  herself  half  way 
24 


370  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

between  Europe  and  Africa,  and  breeding  the  miseries 
and  vices  of  both  without  the  merits  of  either  ? 


The  first  point  upon  which  every  American  and 
Englishman  must  needs  abuse  Spaniards  after  he  has 
done  so  from  his  political  point  of  view,  are  the 
bull-fights ;  and  it  must  be  avowed  that  some  of  their 
features,  at  least,  are  perfectly  abominable,  not  only  to 
an  English  eye,  from  which  the  police  and  the  Society 
for  the  Protection  of  Animals  conceal  every  visible 
suffering,  but  to  every  more  or  less  civilized  eye.  For 
the  Spaniards,  however,  they  are  only  natural  features 
of  the  s-pectacle  to  which  they  have  been  accustomed 
from  their  early  childhood.  There  are  plenty  of 
students  of  medicine  who,  on  first  entering  a  theatre 
of  anatomy,  feel  something  very  nearly  approaching 
to  faintness,  yet  in  a  few  months  or  years,  as  the  case 
may  be,  they  find  certain  niceties  in  the  art  of  chopping 
human  bodies.  Something  similar  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
kitchen  of  every  house,  where  nervous  young  girls, 
who  have  formerly  cried  bitterly  at  seeing  a  chicken's 
throat  cut,  are  subsequently  almost  ready  to  cut  it 
themselves,  and,  at  all  events,  do  cut  raw  meat  with 
almost  as  firm  a  hand  as  a  butcher.  All  these  are 
matters  of  habit;  and  until  the  Spaniard  has  so  changed 
as  to  become  no  Spaniard  any  longer,  he  will  never  be 
made  to  look,  for  instance,  at  the  sufferings  of  horses 
in  the  arena  of  the  bull-ring  with  the  same  horror  a 
foreigner  looks  at  them.  Besides,  there  is  very  little 
real  difference  between  this  sort  of  cruelty  and  that 


ADIOS !  871 

which  is  inflicted   on  the  hare,  the  fox,  the  birds,  or 
even  the  dogs,  in  the  sports  of  all  countries. 

The  sight  of  a  horse  trotting  into  its  own  bowels 
hanging  down  to  the  ground,  is  perfectly  revolting. 
The  intestines  being  pnt  back  again,  the  skin  stitched, 
and  the  poor  animal  carried  once  more  into  the  arena, 
under  sufferings  which  provoke  evident  contortion  in 
all  the  four  legs,  or  the  sight  of  the  expiring  animal 
lying  on  the  ground,  and  being  charged  over  and  over 
again  by  an  infuriated  bull,  is  horrible.  Being  un- 
accustomed to  hear  the  horse  shriek  with  pain,  we 
shudder  when  we  hear,  for  the  first  time,  actual  screams 
extorted  from  these  noble  and  patient  animals,  by  the 
insurmountable  pain  they  are  subjected  to.  I  shall 
never  forget  how,  the  first  time  I  saw  a  fight,  I  actually 
ran  out  of  the  bull-ring  at  the  sight  of  the  struggle 
between  a  bull  and  a  horse.  An  old  hack,  with  a 
broken  leg  and  open  entrails,  was  lying  in  the  middle 
of  the  arena,  when  a  furious  black  bull,  foaming  with 
blood  and  ploughing  the  earth,  rushed  at  him,  rolled 
w^ith  him,  and  in  the  assault  got  his  horn  into  the  mouth 
of  the  poor  animal,  and  seemed,  apparently,  quite  unable 
to  disentangle  himself.  The  circus  thundered  with 
applause;  but  a  new-comer,  however  strong  his  nervous 
system,  had  certainly  the  greatest  difl[iculty  in  bringing 
his  eyes  to  rest  upon  the  horrible  spectacle.  Yet  these 
and  many  other  revolting  details,  so  well  known  through 
being  constantly  described,  are  merely  incidents  of  a 
thoroughly  national,  and,  at  present,  quite  indispensa 
ble  entertainment  of  Spain.  There  are  writers  whc 
say  that  bull-fights  are  the  result  of  national  Spanish 
cruelty ;  others,   that  they  are   the   cause   of  it.     My 


872  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

belief  is,  that  they  are,  in  the  first  place,  an  historical 
necessity ;  and,  in  the  second,  a  most  wholesome 
preventive  against  the  natural  bloodthirstiness  of  the 
Moro-Iberian  man.  As  the  brutality  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race  is  ventilated  through  their  field  and  athletic 
sports,  so  the  bloodthirstiness  of  the  Spaniards  is 
ventilated  in  the  bull-fight.  Without  the  boa^races, 
horse-races,  and  the  endless  forms  of  sport,  the  brutality 
and  muscularity  of  the  average  Britons  would  have 
caused  them  to  smash  each  other's  jaws  and  cleave 
each  other's  skulls  much  more  frequently  than  they 
now  do.  And  so  is  it  with  the  Spaniard,  who,  without 
the  sight  of  warm,  steaming  blood  offered  to  him  at 
least  once  a  week,  would  draw  it  himself,  and  from  a 
still  less  suitable  source  perhaps,  for  he  inust  have  it  at 
any  price,  and  centuries  must  pass  before  he  can  be 
ej^pected  to  change  in  this  respect. 

Alongside  with  this,  so  to  say,  physiological  signifi- 
cance of  the  bull-fight,  there  is  a  practical  one.  As  the 
sports  in  England  have  improved  the  breed  of  man 
and  beast,  so  the  bull-fights  in  Spain  have  preserved 
the  African  agility  in  the  inhabitants  of  the  Peninsula, 
and  promoted  the  raising  of  cattle,  not  to  speak  of  the 
fact  that  the  custom  gives  the  means  of  living  to  thou- 
sands of  people,  directly  and  indirectly  connected  with 
it,  and  that  the  proceeds  of  the  bull-fights  are  devot- 
ed, all  through  the  Peninsula,  to  charitable  purposes, 
though  strange  such  an  association  of  means  and  ends 
may  seem.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  bull-fights  are 
the  remnants  of  ancient  religious  sacrifice,  and  that  in 
the  detail  of  them  you  can  still  pretty  clearly  trace 
certain  features  to  the  ancient  holocaust,  others  to  the 


ADIOS!  373 

gladiators.  The  very  name  of  fight,  which  muscle- 
worshipping  Englishmen  give  to  these  national  Spanish 
entertainments,  is  incorrect,  for  in  Spanish  they  are 
called  Fiestas^  festivities,  not  fights. 

Then  let  us  be  frank.  We  all  like  grand  sights, 
without  much  troubling  ourselves  with  their  real  mean- 
ing. And  if  you  had  ever  been  to  the  Plaza  de  Toros, 
if  you  had  seen  a  motley  crowd  of  some  twelve  or 
fifteen  thousand  men  and  women  assembled  under  the 
dazzling  dome  of  a  southern  sky,  and  excited  to  their 
highest  pitch,  yet  thoroughly  -sober,  exquisitely  polite 
and  gentlemanly  ;  sometimes  inclined  to  use  the  knife, 
but  capable  neither  of  bearing  nor  of  inflicting  an 
insult ;  if  you  had  seen  that  crowd  with  every  nerve 
strained  to  its  fullest  extent,  and  yet  without  a  single 
policeman  to  cool  them  down ;  if  you  had  admired  the 
athletic,  finely-built  bull-fighters,  dressed  in  gorgeous 
attire,  so  tight  as  to  show  every  muscle  and  vein  of 
their  handsome  bodies  ;  if  you  had  become  convinced 
that  nothing  is  farther  from  the  mind  of  either  the 
fighters  or  the  public  than  betting,  "  doctoring,"  or  any- 
thing of  that  sort ;  that  admiration  -of  the  thing  in 
itself,  —  the  agility,  courage,  dexterity,  and  skill  of  the 
man  in  the  presence  of  an  infuriated  beast ;  and  if  at 
dusk,  when  the  fight  is  over,  you  had  seen  that  mass 
of  people  igniting  their  penny  fans,  throwing  them  up 
in  the  air  like  so  many  petty  rockets,  and  joyously 
turning  home  as  good  and  kindly  a  set  of  human  beings 
as  when  they  came  to  witness  the  revolting  sight,  you 
would,  like  myseltj  forget  all  the  cruelties  which  their 
national  and  traditional  entertainment  contains.  After 
all,  we  are  not  horses,  have   probably   a   much  more 


374  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

sensitive  nervous  system  than  any  quadruped,  yet  some 
of  us  endure  sufferings  wliich  no  oilier  animal  would 
stand  without  revolting  against.  And  it  remains  still 
an  open  question  whether  it  is  not  better  to  die  as 
these  old,  worn-out  steeds  do,  after  a  few  minutes'  suf- 
fering, and  under  the  thundering  applause  of  thousands 
of  people,  than  to  finish  one's  career,  as  a  good  many 
men  do,  after  a  long  life  of  labor,  in  the  street,  from 
hunger,  in  the  workhouse,  despised  by  everybody,  and 
cursed  by  the  tax-payers,  or  in  a  prison,  locked  up  like 
a  wild  beast  in  a  solitary  cage,  for  having  stolen  a  loaf 
of  bread  when  urged  by  the  pangs  of  hunger. 


As  a  matter  of  course,  the  bull-fights  open  an  inex- 
haustible field  for  moralizing.  There  is  scarcely  any 
strano^er  even  amonsj  such  as  have  never  visited  the 
Peninsula,  who  has  not  something  to  say  not  only  on 
the  cruelty  of  the  entertainments,  but  on  the  great 
impropriety  of  various  practices  connected  with  it. 
The  custom  of  taking  children  to  these  Fiestas  was  at 
all  times  violently  attacked,  as  one  w^hich  would  natu- 
rally breed  cruelty  in  the  young  generation.  But,  as 
Mr.  Ford  justly  remarks,  "They  return  to  their  homes 
unchanged,  playful,  timid,  or  serious  as  before  ;  their 
kindly  social  feelings  are  uninjured ;  and  wliere  is  the 
filial  or  parental  bond  more  affectionately  cherished 
than  in  Spain  ?  Where  are  the  noble  courtesies  of 
life,  the  kind,  considerate,  self-respecting  demeanor,  so 
exemplified  as  in  Spanish  society  ?  "  Until  the  children 
get  accustomed  to  the  cruel  details  of  the  spectacle, 


ADIOS !  375 

they  tura  away  their  eyes  as  any  grown  foreigner  does 
when  he  first  attends  the  Fiesta;  but  the  painful,  revolt- 
ing details  of  the  sight  are  soon  lost  "in  the  poetical 
ferocity  of  the  whole,  for  the  interest  of  the  tragedy  of 
real  death  is  undeniable,  irresistible,  and  all-absorb- 
ing." To  say  that  these  sights  render  the  children 
more  cruel  or  hard-hearted  is  simply  absurd.  If  it  had 
been  so,  what  should  we,  then,  have  to  say  of  the  cus- 
tom, so  prevalent  in  England,  of  sending  little  children 
to  the  nearest  corner  public  house  to  fetch  some  beer 
or  spirits  for  the  already  half-drunken  father  or  mother, 
and  to  lap  with  their  tongue  the  froth  of  the  malt 
liquor  at  an  age  when  they  ought  to  have  tasted  noth- 
ing but  their  mothers'  milk  ?  Is  there  any  moralizing 
humbug  on  earth  that  would  venture  to  assert  that 
this  latter  practice  is  more  edifying  or  more  elevating 
than  the  former?  The  common  Spanish  woman  takes 
her  child  to  the  bull-fight  simply  as  a  common  English 
woman  takes  hers  to  the  Crystal  Palace  on  Good 
Friday,  or  an  American  woman  to  a  Hudson  River  pic- 
nic on  a  summer  day  ;  she  does  so  simply  because  she 
cannot  leave  it  at  home.  Among  the  children  of  the 
educated  classes  the  bull-fights  do  not  produce  any 
more  ravage  that  the  sight  of  the  Derby  or  the  Uni- 
versity boat-race  does.  You  can  safely  carry  a  Span- 
ish boy  every  week  to  the  Plaza  de  Toros^  without 
running  the  risk  of  his  ever  becoming  a  betting  man, 
losing  every  farthing  he  could  lay  his  hand  on,  and 
finishing  his  career  on  the  treadmill.  The  worst  thing 
you  can  expect  is,  that  he  will  go  mad  over  the  niceties 
of  Tauromachia^  and,  if  he  has  much  property,  will 
breed  bulls,  or  else  become  an  amateur  Espada. 


376  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

The  Spaniards  are  certainly  a  very  ignorant  set  of 
people,  and  anything  approaching  to  a  system  of  edu- 
cation or  training  is  perfectly  unknown  to  them.  But 
they  fully  make  up  for  that  by  the  natural  affections 
and  sympathies  which  animate  every  Spanish  family, 
and  of  which  no  idea  can  be  formed  by  foreigners, 
unless  they  had  opportunities  to  enter  the  Spanish 
home  on  intimate  terms.  Englishmen  are  justly  proud 
of  some  of  the  aspects  of  their  family  life ;  but,  as  is 
only  too  often  the  case,  they  are  apt  to  exaggerate  their 
own  merits.  We  all  know  that  too  frequently  a 
"happy  family"  means  simply  a  pandemonium,  and 
that  a  friendly  family  circle  has  become  an  exception 
instead  of  being  a  rule  in  this  country ;  while  in  Spain 
it  is  still  a  rule  with  exceptions  to  it,  presented  only  in 
Madrid,  where  the  foreigners  and  the  political  jobbers 
have  exercised  their  wretched  influence.  With  oranges, 
figs,  and  dates  growing  wild,  starvation  is  not  easy ; 
consequently,  actual  want  is  but  little  known,  and  the 
family  has  a  thousand  facilities  for  living  together 
without  breaking  up  for  business  reasons.  A  boy 
leaving  home,  at  twelve  or  thirteen  years  of  age,  to 
learn  a  trade,  as  in  England,  or  a  girl  being  sent  off, 
for  economy's  sake,  to  a  "  select  boarding-school,"  is 
almost  a  thing  unknown  in  Spain. 

The  English  are  proud  of  the  amount  of  work  they 
are  capable  of  performing,  but  the  Spaniards  are  of 
opinion  that  the  English  cannot  help  working ;  if  they 
did  not,  they  would  all  have  to  hang  themselves,  so 
dull  is  their  country ;  while  Spain  is  known  to  be  Par- 
adise, and  the  man  has  no  need  to  work  in  Paradise. 
An  old  Castilian  saying  tells  us  that,  if  God  had  not 


ADIOSl  377 

been  God,  He  would  have  been  King  of  all  the  Spains, 
and  would  have  taken  the  French  king  as  a  cook  to  him- 
self: "  8i  Dios  nofuese  Dios,  seria  Mey  de  las  Espanas^ 
y  el  de  Francia  su  cocineror  And  this  apparently 
ridiculous  boasting  of  the  Spaniard  has  some  raison 
d'^etre.  Fancy,  for  instance,  what  a  havoc  the  chronic 
Spanish  disturbances  would  have  produced  in  any 
other  country!  The  people  of  the  Peninsula  have 
been,  for  these  last  years,  supposed  to  be  in  an  "  awful 
state;''  but  go  to  their  country,  look  at  their  life,  and 
you  will  see  absolutely  nothing  "awful"  in  it.  The 
national  existence  is  proceeding  in  its  usual  course, 
everybody  has  something  to  eat,  a  house,  a  more  or 
less  handsome  wife,  a  lot  of  children,  and  would  not 
exchange  his  existence  for  a  much  more  comfortable 
one  in  the  best-regulated  community  in  the  world.  If 
some  one  feels  in  himself  an  exuberance  of  activity,  he 
goes  to  Cuba  to  make  money,  or  to  some  of  the  South 
American  republics  ;  a  few,  perhaps,  will  go  to  the  city 
of  London.  But  the  vast  majority  of  Spaniards  are 
perfectly  satisfied  with  what  they  have  at  home.  The 
disturbances  they  have  are  mere  old  stories  to  them, 
and  have  never  prevented  them  from  enjoying  their 
delightful  climate,  their  bright  scenery,  and  such  amuse- 
ments as  tradition  and  habits  have  rendered  indispen- 
sable to  them.  All  over  the  country,  both  poor  and 
rich  walk  quietly  about,  enjoying  life,  smoking  their 
cigarettes,  gossiping  at  their  tertuUas^  and  the  more 
eagerly  discussing  political  topics,  the  less  they  know 
about  tlie  subject.  To  get  excited,  to  run  or  rush 
about  even  in  a  moment  of  actual  danger,  still  less  for 
the  sake  of  business,  would  never  occur  to  the  mind  of 


378  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

a  Spaniard.  There  is  an  amount  of  Mohammedan 
fatalism  in  him  which  predudes  him  from  ever  attempt- 
ing to  overcome  circumstances.  The  thorough  absence 
of  any  chance  of  making  money  in  the  English  or 
American  fashion,  makes  everybody  indifferent  and 
quiet,  and  the  natural  fertility  of  the  soil  and  the 
Spanish  climate  do  the  rest. 

A  good  many  foreign  visitors  to  Spain  complain  of 
the  Spanish  shopkeeper  apparently  not  caring  at  all 
about  selling  his  goods :  he  does  it  in  such  a  lazy 
sort  of  way,  as  if  he  were  obliging  the  customer  and 
not  pleasing  himself.  And  so  it  is ;  the  majority  of 
the  Spaniards  do  not  care  at  all  about  doing  business 
for  business'  sake.  They  are  still  under  the  impression 
that  to  gain  one's  bread  by  the  sweat  of  one's  brow 
was  inflicted  as  a  punishment,  and  does  not,  by  any 
means,  constitute  an  intrinsic  part  of  life.  Catalonia, 
which  is  the  most  hard-working  province,  and  which 
works,  after  all,  by  no  means  hard,  is  disliked  by  the 
rest  of  Spain,  and  towns  like  Cadiz  are  held  in  utter 
disregard  by  Seville  and  Granada,  as  being  the  homes 
of  shopkeeping  communities. 

A  short  time  ago,  I  was  told  by  the  manager  of  one 
of  the  largest  London  wine-merchants  that  the  senior 
partner  of  the  firm,  anxious  to  discover  some  new 
stocks  of  wine,  went  himself  to  Spain,  bought  some 
horses,  and  started  into  the  interior  of  the  country,  for 
the  purpose  of  buying  up  all  he  could  possibly  find 
during  his  rambles.  One  day  he  arrived  upon  the 
estate  of  a  wealthy  Spanish  grandee,  and,  on  entering 
his  house,  said,  in  a  half-British,  half-Spanish  dialect 
that  he  wanted  some  wine.     "You  want  some  wine, 


ADIOSl  379 

caballero?"  answered  the  Adalusian  magnate;  "I 
shall  be  most  happy  to  obhge  you.  I  will  give  orders 
to  my  steward  to  give  you  as  much  as  you  like  of  it." 
The  Englishman  tried  to  explain  to  his  host  that  he 
did  not  mean  he  wanted  to  drink,  but  to  buy  some. 
"  O,  I  won't  sell  anything ;  I  am  not  a  wine-merchant ! 
Take  as  much  as  you  please  and  carry  it  off,"  was  the 
Spaniard's  answer.  I  greatly  regret  I  was  not  able  to 
ascertain  how  the  matter  was  finally  settled,  but  I  have 
every  reason  to  believe  that  a  compromise  —  the  sacred 
British  machinery  for  settling  differences  by  give  and 
take  —  was  arrived  at,  and  that  the  English  merchant 
finally  consented  to  pay  much  less  than  he  was  pre- 
pared to  do,  Avhile  the  Spaniard  accepted  much  more 
than  his  national  pundonor  would  strictly  permit. 


But  if  the  soil,  the  climate,  the  tradition,  and  the 
general  conditions  of  the  country,  equally  contribute 
to  strengthen  the  lies  of  Spanish  family  life,  much  is 
also  done  towards  it  by  the  Spanish  woman,  that 
abused  and  charming  being  against  whom  "every  puny 
scribbler  shoots  his  petty  barbed  arrow."  What  cal- 
umnies have  not  been  written  or  said  against  the 
Spanish  woman,  and  what  are  the  merits  and  the  vir- 
tues—  education  excepted  —  that  she  does  not  pos- 
sess? True,  that  she  frequently  learns  what  love  is 
before  she  knows  what  the  alphabet  is;  but  this  igno- 
rance is  not  her  fault,  nor  is  it  any  way  out  of  propor- 
tion with  the  general  ignorance  of  the  men  of  her 
country.     If  you  are  philosophical  enough  to  take  this 


380  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

as  a  circumstance  which  cannot  be  helped  at  present, 
and  are  able  to  look  at  people,  not  from  the  exclusive 
point  of  view  of  your  own  country,  but  from  a  genial 
and  human  point  of  view,  you  will  soon  discover,  on 
studying  the  Spanish  woman,  that  you  must  take  all 
the  virtue  of  the  most  virtuous  Englishwoman,  all  the 
grace  and  wit  of  the  most  graceful  and  witty  French- 
woman, and  all  the  beauty  of  the  most  handsome 
Italian  woman,  to  make  something  approaching  to  a 
perfect  Spanish  lady. 

But  she  has  her  dark  sides,  of  course.  You  cannot 
talk  to  her  seriously;  her  conversation  is  always  a  mere 
gossip ;  she  is  also  often  bigoted  and  superstitious ; 
but  her  natural  charms,  both  moral  and  physical,  the 
kindness  of  her  heart,  and  the  truthfulness  of  her  love, 
when  she  once  loves,  fully  compensate  for  all  her  defects. 
One  would  be  inclined  to  say  that  her  very  virtues 
are  almost  too  great  for  the  welfare  of  the  country,  for 
a  married  Spanish  woman  is  a  perfect  mistress  in  every- 
thing that  relates  to  the  education  of  her  children ; 
her  husband  is,  as  a  rule,  too  much  of  a  politician,  of  a 
cafe-talker,  and  of  a  man  of  the  world,  to  attend  to 
these  matters;  and  as  even  a  good  many  Spanish 
women  of  high  society  do  not  possess  half  the 
knowledge  of  an  average  middle-class  woman  of  Eng- 
land or  Germany  (however  little  that  may  be),  their 
influence  in  perpetuating  general  Spanish  ignorance  is 
alarmingly  strong.  One  would  almost  desire  they 
were  less  domesticated  and  virtuous.,  and  would  send 
their  children  to  school,  instead  of  constantly  keeping 
them  by  their  side. 

Yet  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  Spanish  women 


ADIOS !  381 

are  incapable  of  any  serious  occupation,  or  of  acquiring 
knowledge.  It  is  not  impossible,  though,  still  by  the 
way  of  rare  exceptions,  to  meet,  both  at  Madrid  and 
in  some  of  the  provinces,  amongst  the  richer  classes, 
as  accomplished  young  ladies  as  one  could  possibly 
wish  to  be  acquainted  with.  In  some  of  the  ports  of 
Andalusia,  in  Madrid,  and  in  Barcelona,  a  good  many 
of  them  speak  excellent  English.  French  is  more  or 
less  spread  through  all  classes  except  the  very  lowest. 
The  literature  of  their  own  country  begins  to  be  studied 
by  even  very  young  Spanish  girls,  and  painting  and 
music  have  become,  nowadays,  quite  a  common  ac- 
complishment in  every  family  whose  means  permit 
them  to  think  of  anything  beyond  the  troubles  of 
every-day  life. 

The  free-and-easy  manner  shown  by  the  fair  sex 
throughout  all  classes  of  Spanish  society,  causes  a  good 
many  foreigners  to  form  a  rather  unfavorable  opinion 
of  the  morals  of  Spanish  ladies.  The  tacit  belief 
which  we  all  have  that  physical  beauty  is  an  addi- 
tional temptation  to  illicit  love,  causes  ^  good  many 
of  us  to  assume  that  the  morals  of  Spanish  ladies 
cannot  be  very  strict,  and  their  bold  manner  of  look- 
ing at  men,  their  "  o/ear,"  which,  to  a  foreign  mind, 
has  something  impudent  about  it,  strengthens  still 
more  this  belief  "  La  sdl^^  the  salt,  the  piquancy  of  a 
Spanish  giri  or  woman,  the  thing  of  which  her  sweet- 
heart or  husband  is  so  proud,  seems,  to  foreign  tourists, 
quite  shocking.  But  when  you  come  to  know  these 
women,  you  will  not  only  admire  them,  but  you  will 
actually  experience  the  contagion  of  their  virtue. 
At  all  events,  I  must  confess  that   in  no  country  in 


382  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

Europe  —  and  I  have  seen  them  all  —  have  I  found 
such  pure  enjoyment  in  intercourse  with  ladies  as  in 
Spain. 

Of  course  you  must  not  attempt  to  talk  philosophy 
or  politics  with  them,  for  they  would  turn  their  back 
to  you,  or  would  still  more  unceremoniously  request  you 
to  "  shut  up."  But  if  you  have  sense  enough  to  ad- 
mire what  is  beautiful,  graceful,  and  witty ;  if,  however 
serious  and  dull  your  occupation,  you  are  capable  of 
enjoying  the  gossip  of  a  being  as  bright  and  pure  as  a 
child,  the  society  of  Spanish  girls  and  women  will  give 
you  no  end  of  the  brightest  enjoyment.  Whether  all 
this  would  do  in  the  long  run,  and  as  something  per- 
manent, I  am  unable  to  tell.  But,  for  a  while,  the  sight 
of  their  lovely  features,  the  profusion  of  their  hair,  their 
hands  almost  as  small  as  those  of  a  baby,  their  minia- 
ture feet,  sometimes  quite  bare,  and  scarcely  slipped 
into  little  satin  shoes,  their  everlasting  warbling,  seem 
all  the  more  captivating  to  you  because  of  your  pro- 
found consciousness  that  you  cannot  buy  these  charms. 
Such  a  thing  as  a  young  girl  marrying  for  money,  or 
for  any  social  consideration,  is  almost  unknown  in 
Spain.  You  must  win  or  conquer  her  heart.  A  young 
girl  marrying  an  old  man,  would  be  thrown  out  of  the 
society  of  all  her  friends,  and  reaching  the  country  seat 
of  her  old,,  and,  perhaps,  invalid  husband,  would  be 
soon  made  to  feel  by  every  farmer's  wife  and  daughter 
that  they  are  more  pure  and  honest  than  she. 

A  Spanish  girl  may  sometimes  change  her  sweet- 
hearts ;  she  might  have  had  half  a  dozen  of  them  before 
she  married  one ;  but  when  she  has  done  so,  I  believe 
she  is,  as  a  rule,  the  most  truthful  and  loving  woman 


ADIOS I  383 

on  earth ;  and  should  her  life  prove  an  unhappy  one, 
no  one  will  ever  know  that,  for  she  will  never  carry 
her  complaints  either  to  a  divorce  court  or  to  the  apart- 
ments of  a  paramour.  "  So  you  mean  to  say  that  there 
is  neither  immorality  nor  adultery  in  Spain  ?  "  may  ask 
the  reader.  No,  that  is  not  what  I  mean  to  say.  But 
what  I  do  mean  to  say  is,  that  the  comparative  per- 
centage of  professional  vice,  and  of  general  looseness 
of  morals,  is  much  lower  in  Spain  than  any  other  coun- 
try of  Europe.  The  best  proof  of  this  is,  that  the  so- 
called  demi-monde^  or  the  kept  women,  are  unknown, 
even  in  Madrid  itself.  There  are  fallen  women  in  the 
capital  of  Spain,  and  in  a  couple  of  the  large  towns  of 
the  Peninsula ;  but  the  total  of  prostitutes  throughout 
the  country  is,  I  believe,  much  under  the  number  we 
can  daily  meet  in  one  leading  street  of  Paris,  London, 
or  Berlin.  As  to  conjugal  unfaithfulness,  it  will  always 
exist,  as  long  as  married  women  and  unmarried  men  meet 
together,  and  as  long  as  mistakes  in  the  selection  of  a 
partner,  and  misapprehension  in  the  affinities  cannot  be 
avoided ;  but  it  preserves  still,  among  the  Moro-Iberian 
race,  the  character  of  a  very  rare  and  exceptional  oc- 
currence, and  is  almost  exclusively  confined  to  Madrid, 
the  city  of  which  the  Spaniards  themselves  say,  "  He 
w^ho  wants  thee  does  not  know  thee ;  he  who  knows 
thee  does  not  want  thee." 

**  Quien  te  quiere,  no  te  sabe : 
Quien  te  sabe,  no  te  quiere." 

An  abject  form  of  immorality,  which  is  rather 
largely  spread  over  the  Italian  peninsula,  and  which 
the  empire  of  Napoleon  III.  has  freely  bred  in  Paris,  is 


384  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

not  unfrequently  met  with  in  the  capital  of  Spain.  The 
civil  service  clerks  and  the  officers  of  the  army  who  get 
out  of  employ  with  the  fall  of  a  ministry,  who  liave,  at 
the  same  time,  neither  a  profession  nor  abilities  to  earn 
their  livelihood,  and  are  accustomed  to  live  much 
beyond  their  means,  sell  their  wives.  These  become 
the  mistresses  of  rich  foreigners,  of  bankers  or  men 
in  office,  and  the  husbands  make  a  living  out  of 
this  ignominy.  But  such  scamps,  who  deserve  the  lash 
of  Newgate,  are  few ;  their  names  are  all  known  and 
stamped  with  the  abject  epithet  they  fully  deserve,  and 
out  of  the  capital  of  Spain  you  will  never  find  an  in- 
stance of  that  sort. 

It  is  well  known  that  Madrid  is  in  every  respect  the 
curse  of  Spain,  in  its  government,  in  its  moral  influence, 
and  even  in  its  very  climate,  which  is  said  to  be  so 
subtile  that  it  would  kill  a  man,  while  apparently  it 
cannot  even  put  out  a  candle.  "  El  aire  de  Ifadrid  es 
tan  sutil  que  mata  a  un  hombre^  y  no  apaga  a  un 
candilP  And  the  truth  is  that,  except  the  Picture 
Gallery  and  the  Prado,  there  is  nothing  to  be  seen  in  the 
capital  of  Spain.  The  traveller  who  goes  to  Spain  for 
the  purpose  of  studying  it  will  certainly  learn  much 
more  during  a  stay  of  a  couple  of  weeks  in  any  pro- 
vincial town  than  in  the  capital.  Even  the  national 
Spanish  customs  have  there  almost  disappeared,  and 
the  classical  cure,  with  his  extravagant  hat,  is  almost 
never  to  be  met  With.  Since  the  departure  of  the  last 
royalty  there  is  not  even  affi^rded  the  sight  of  luxury 
which  is  so  attractive  to  many  sight-seers,  and  for 
which  Madrid  was  once  so  celebrated.  The  beautiful 
horses  and  mules  which  were  but  a  couple  of  years  ago 


ADIOSl  385 

daily  to  be  seen  on  the  Prado  have  disappeared ;  a  fine 
carriage  or  a  fine  steed  has  become  quite  a  rarity,  and 
if  the  republic  is  going  to  last,  even  the  few  that  may 
still  be  seen  will  disappear,  for  they  all  belong  to  the 
aristocracy,  and  not  to  financial  or  business  men,  who 
may  perhaps  remain  in  Madrid  notwithstanding  the 
form  of  government,  while  the  aristocrats  will  all  go, 
or  are  gone  already,  preferring  as  they  do  Paris,  Vien- 
na, Rome,  and  Florence  to  their  own  capital,  of  which 
the  palace  is  unoccupied.  They  hve  much  in  the  fash- 
ion of  the  Irish  landlords.  Always  absent  from  the 
place  where  they  ought  to  be  present,  they  are  to  be 
seen  only  at  the  court  of  Madrid  or  abroad,  and  call  at 
their  estates  only  when  they  get  short  of  money.  They 
come  then  to  their  ancient  seats  for  a  couple  of  weeks, 
for  the  sale  of  some  property,  or  for  the  more  or  less 
forcible  collection  of  arrears  from  their  farmers. 

But  this  daily  increasing  exodus  from  the  capital  still 
does  not  prevent  Madrid  from  being  full  of  handsome 
men  and  handsome  women.  You  can  sit  for  hours  on 
the  Prado,  looking  as  they  are  passing  by,  gossiping  on 
the  events  of  the  day ;  and  at  night  all  the  theatres 
are  crowded,  and  to  a  stranger  the  Spanish  audience 
presents  always  a  much  more  interesting  sight*than 
the  Spanish  performance.  Still,  if  you  want  to  see 
nowadays  something  of  real  Spain,  you  must  go  far 
south  from  the  capital,  to  those  regions  where  even  in 
the  midst  of  the  winter  months  the  July  sun  of  London 
would  seem  a  mere  dozing  lamp.  It  is  there  that  you 
still  find  the  national  costumes,  the  national  usages,  and 
those  ancient  edifices  which  remind  you  of  the  days  of 
Spain's  greatness  and  glory.  It  is  there  that  you  see 
25 


886  SPAIN  AND    THE  SPANIARDS. 

also  the  classical  Spanish  beggars  and  gypsies,  and  the 
national  Spanish  dancing,  not  that  sort  of  European 
dancing  which  consists  in  the  show  of  a  kind  of  notched 
sticks  supposed  to  be  human  legs,  but  that  dancing  in 
which  the  ribs,  the  fall  of  the  back,  the  arms,  and  the 
head  all  join  in  a  long,  voluptuous  series  of  unseizable 
movements.  It  is  also  to  these  regions  you  must  go  if 
you  want  to  see  real  Spanish  beauties,  those  little  dark 
ones  with  large  eyes,  long  eyelashes,  and  all  the  charms 
w^hich  the  painters  have  rendered  us  so  familiar  with. 
In  Madrid  you  find  only  a  few  of  them,  and  that  only 
at  the  height  of  the  season.  The  infusion  of  European 
blood  and  the  blood  of  the  northern  provinces  of  Spain 
has  been  too  great  in  the  capital  for  her  population  to 
preserve  the  characteristic  type  of  the  Moro-Iberian 
race,  and  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  in  the  streets  of 
Madrid  one  does  not  meet  a  larger  number  of  fair  and 
red  women  than  of  dark  ones. 

The  promptitude  with  which  Madrid  gets  denation- 
alized is  something  amazing.  You  will  hardly  ever  see, 
nowadays,  except  in  the  theatres,  the  mantilla,  over 
which,  thanks  to  the  unbearable  climate  of  the  capital, 
the  Madrid  ladies  take  good  care,  to  taparse  Men  (to 
muffle  themselves  well),  with  all  sorts  of  British  and 
French  shawls,  plaids,  and  kindred  things.  At  dinners 
you  will  but  seldom  see  a  lady  eating  fish  with  a  knife, 
or  carrying  a  toothpick  stuck  in  her  mouth.  A  few  of 
them  will  perhaps  take  a  glass  of  wine  during  the  meal, 
and  one  in  a  hundred  may,  on  the  quiet,  smoke  a  ciga- 
rette. Many  Englishmen  believe,  of  course,  that  every 
Spanish  woman  smokes,  but  that  is  nonsense ;  except 
the  cigarrera  (the  working  woman  at  the  cigar  factory), 


ADIOS I  387 

and  a  few  ladies  from  Cuba,  no  Spanish  woman  ever 
smokes.  In  Andalusia  they  also  scarcely  know  the 
taste  of  wine,  pure  water,  and  perhaps  a  sweet,  cool, 
summer  drink,  being  all  their  beverage.  But  the  tooth- 
pick is  here  carried  all  day  long  in  their  mouth,  and  the 
fish  is  eaten  not  only  with  a  knife,  but  sometimes  with 
the  miniature  fingers  adorned  with  rosy  nails.  Such 
little  savageries  may,  perhaps,  seem  shocking  to  Euro- 
pean routine ;  but  they  are  done  in  such  a  n^atural  and 
graceful  way  that  you  cannot  help  admiring  them. 


Should  this  volume  ever  fall  into  the  hands  of 
some  fair  readers,  they  may  possibly  exclaim,  "Why, 
with  all  the  grace  and  beauty  you  find  in  the  Spanish 
woman,  her  love  is  on  that  account  not  sweeter,  or  her 
feelings  not  purer,  than  those  of  other  women."  To 
this  I  would  not  answer  either  in  the  affirmative  or  the 
negative.  My  age  and  the  hard  toil  of  my  life  no 
longer  allow  me  to  flirt.  During  my  stay  in  Spain  I 
was,  therefore,  unavoidably  prevented  from  making  any 
experience  of  my  own  in  that  way.  But  from  what  I 
have  observed,  and  heard  from  my  friends  and  ac- 
quaintances,! have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  love 
of  a  Spanish  woman  differs  from  that  of  women  of  other 
nations  in  this  respect,  that  no  practical  consideration 
ever  enters  into  it.  Matrimony,  as  a  project,  seems 
seldom  to  be  entertained  by  the  Spanish  girl.  She 
loves  for  love's  sake;  she  would  never  inquire,  either 
directly  or  indirectly,  into  the  position  or  pecuniary 
means  of  her  sweetheart,  and  when  marriage  is  pro- 


388  SPAIN  AND  THE  SPANIARDS. 

posed,  she  takes  it  only  as  one  of  the  incidents  of  the 
romance  which  is  "  to  be  continued  in  our  next" — that 
is  to  say,  through  a  series  of  years,  until  she  bears 
about  half  a  dozen  children,  and  becomes  a  matron  just 
as  deeply  interested  in  the  love  affairs  of  her  sons  and 
daughters  as  she  is  now  interested  in  her  own. 

The  intercourse  between  sweethearts  in  Spain  is  also 
greatly  different  from  what  we  see  in  other  European 
countries.  The  girl  is  neither  subjected  to  the  French 
seclusion,  nor  does  she  enjoy  the  freedom  considered  so 
natural  in  the  eyes  of  the  English  and  American  peo- 
ple. But  she  is  not  deprived  of  this  freedom,  as  in 
France,  through  the  despotic  authority  of  the  parents. 
She  simply  does  not  take  it,  partly  because  she  feels  an 
instinctive  mistrust  for  the  passion  which  animfates  her, 
and  partly  because  the  family  ties  in  Spain  are  so  soft 
and  pleasant  that  she  has  no  reason  for  ever  having  a 
desire  to  enjoy  her  love  outside  of  her  home.  The 
wliole  romance  is  going  on  under  the  family  roof  or  in 
the  family  patio.,  under  the  dazzling  sky,  and  amidst 
the  atmosphere  of  orange  trees  and  aromatic  hot-house 
plants  growing  wild.  With  the  kissing  business  (I 
must  beg  pardon  for  not  finding  a  better  expression), 
both  herself  and  her  young  man  are  rather  frightened. 
They  feel  they  might  lose  their  heads  if  they  indulged 
in  it,  and  that  which  we  see  in  certain  other  countries, 
where  a  girl  kisses  her  lover  for  three  or  four  years,  and 
afterwards  brings  an  action  for  damages  against  him,  is 
quite  an  unknown  thing  in  Spain.  The  young  Spanish 
lovers  kiss  each  other  on  meeting  and  on  parting  in  the 
presence  of  their  parents  or  friends ;  perhaps  a  furtive 
kiss  sometimes  may  be  deposited  on  the  girl's  hand  or 


ADIOSl  389 

her  foot  somewhere  on  the  staircase,  or  at  the  fall  of 
night  at  the  house-gate.  But  anything  in  the  shape  of 
long  solitary  walks,  or  excursions,  of  a  pair  of  young 
sweethearts,  would  be  quite  out  of  the  question  in 
Spain,  for  the  blood  running  in  the  veins  of  the  young 
girl  and  the  young  man  would  cause  them  to  lose  all 
control  over  themselves. 

To  those  who  know  Spain  only  from  reading  Span- 
ish stories,  the  love  affairs  in  that  country  appear  also  as 
necessarily  connected  with  serenades  and  knife  strug- 
gles of  the  rivals.  This  is  greatly  exaggerated.  The 
serenading  of  one's  beloved  is  occasionally  still  to  be 
met  with  in  Andalusia,  where  the  climate  and  all  the 
habits  of  life  greatly  encourage  it ;  but  in  the  other 
parts  of  Spain  the  business  is  gone  through  in  the  usual 
European  in-door  way.  As  to  knives,  if  they  are  used 
between  two  men  who  happen  to  fall  in  love  with  the 
same  woman,  their  indiscriminate  manipulation  in  such 
cases  begins  to  be  regarded  as  a  romantic  extravagance 
provided  for  in  the  penal  code.  Sometimes,  I  am  sorry 
to  say,  Spanish  love  romances  assume  even  a  very 
prosaic  aspect.  For  instance,  during  my  residence  at 
Madrid  I  used  to  watch  a  happy  pair  who  were  living 
in  the  same  house  with  me.  The  families  of  the  sweet- 
hearts were  not  on  very  good  terms.  That  of  the  girl 
occupied  the  second  floor,  that  of  the  man  the  first,  and 
as  the  man  belonged  to  a  much  richer  family,  there  was 
some  objection  raised  to  the  marriage.  The  young 
people  had,  therefore,  to  carry  on  their  love-making 
clandestinely,  and  the  window  of  my  back  room  open- 
ing into  the  court-yard,  I  saw  them  daily  corresponding 
by  means  of  strings  through  the  little  railed  windows 
of  their  respective  pantries. 


390  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

The  break-up  of  courtship  is  performed  also  in  a 
manner  somewhat  peculiar  to  Spain.  It  is,  as  a  rule, 
done  very  quietly,  without  the  slightest  exposure  and 
annoyance  to  any  one,  except  the  party  immediately 
concerned.  When  the  girl  breaks  off  with  her  sweet- 
heart, her  parents  seldom  even  ask  her  why  she  has 
done  so,  and  her  friends  would  take  it  as  the  greatest 
indiscretion  to  put  any  question,  were  it  only  that  of 
asking  why  the  yonng  man  is  no  more  to  be  seen  in 
the  house.  The  girl  exerts  all  her  efforts  to  conceal 
from  those  around  her  the  circumstances  which  have 
led  to  the  termination  of  their  courtship.  A  young 
lady  whose*  family  belonged  to  the  Alfonso  party,  and 
whose  house  I  used  frequently  to  visit  at  Madrid,  was 
greatly  in  love  with  a  youth  of  strong  Republican  pro- 
clivities. Whether  politics  had  anything  to  do  with 
their  quarrels  I  don't  know,  but  three  or  four  mouths 
later  I  was  one  day  quietly  writing  in  my  room  at  St.- 
Jean-de-Luz,  when  the  servant  came  to  tell  me  that  a 
lady  was  asking  for  me,  and  much  to  my  astonishment, 
I  saw  the  young  girl  whose  parents  had  since  taken 
their  summer  quarters  at  Biarritz.  "I  come  to  ask 
you  a  favor,"  said  she,  cordially  shaking  hands  with 
me  ;  "  it  is  but  a  trifling  matter.  I  bring  you  a  little 
parcel  which  I  want  you  to  address  to  Eduardo.  I 
have  broken  off  with  him :  he  has  turned  quite  a  fed- 
eralist, and  a  fearfully  violent  one.  He  is  now  at  Bar- 
celona, and  I  want  to  send  him  all  his  letters  back. 
As  I  do  not  wish  any  of  my  friends  to  know  what  I  am 
doing,  neither  that  his  friends  should  recognize  my 
handwriting  when  he  receives  the  letters,  I  thought  you 
would  be  about  the  best  person  I  could  apply  to.    You 


ADIOS!  391 

will  probably  soon  leave  here  and  forget  all  about  us ; " 
and  she  handed  me  a  packet  of  fully  six  or  seven  pounds 
weight,  which  a  professional  novel-writer  would  proba- 
bly have  paid  very  dear  for,  as  its  contents  would  have 
given  him  an  invaluable  material  for  writing  a  most 
life-like  Spanish  love-story. 


I  am  afraid,  however,  that  my  praise  of  the  Spanish 
women  may  be  interpreted  in  the  sense  of  my  having 
been  so  allured  by  their  physical  charms  as  to  overlook 
their  defects.  But  I  don't  believe  that  such  a  suppo- 
sition would  be  correct.  The  profound  admiration 
which  I  feel  for  the  Spanish  woman  does  not  limit  itself 
to  her  appearance  and  features;  it  is  her  kindness,  the 
tenderness  of  her  heart,  which  is  clearly  perceptible  in 
every  act  of  her  life,  that  I  admire,  much  more  still  than 
her  beauty,  her  natural  wit,  or  any  other  external 
attractions.  In  the  lowest  classes  you  see  almost  the 
same  merits  as  you  meet  with  in  the  highest  circle. 
The  wife  of  a  peasant  is  just  as  loving  to  her  husband, 
just  as  careful  about  her  children,  and  just  as  kind  to 
everybody  surrounding  her  as  the  wife  of  a  grandee. 
She  is  even,  perhaps,  more  so.  Whether  you  knock  at 
the  door  of  an  inn,  or  of  an  isolated  farm,  all  the  women 
of  the  house  come  to  receive  you,  and  there  is  not  a 
thing  that  will  be  refused  to  you.  If  you  fall  ill,  whether 
it  be  at  a  hotel,  a  lodging-house,  or  the  residence  of  a 
friend,  you  may  be  perfectly  sure  of  having  such  kind- 
ness and  attention  paid  to  you  as  you  could  scarcely 
find  in  your  own  home.    All  day  long,  the  ladies,  old 


392  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

and  young,  as  well  as  all  the  servant  girls  of  the  house, 
will  not  leave  you  alone  for  a  moment ;  they  will  sur- 
round your  bed,  and  really  enervate  you  through  the 
minute  attentions  they  show  to  you. 

With  a  view  not  to  be  accused  of  partiality,  I  will 
again  adduce  other  people's  observations  on  the  work 
of  mercy  which  the  Spanish  women  are  doing  all 
through  the  Peninsula.  A  writer  in  Macraillan's  Maga- 
zine, publishing  his  impressions  of  life  in  the  interior  of 
Spain,  speaks  thus  on  the  subject  of  Spanish  charity :  — 

"But  there  was  one  sight  in  Cadiz  that  I  had  long 
yearned  to  see ;  a  sight  that,  once  seen,  will  never  be 
by  me  forgotten,  and  one  that  should  make  the  name 
of  Cadiz  dear  to  every  true  and  loving  English  heart. 
I  mean  the  Casa  de  Misericordia ;  or,  as  it  is  now 
called.  El  Hospicio  de  Cadiz.  Thither,  on  the  first 
day  possible  to  me,  I  turned  my  steps.  The  exterior 
of  this  institution,  one  of  the  most  benevolent  in  the 
world,  has  nothing  to  recommend  it.  It  is  simply,  as 
'Murray '  says,  a  huge  yellow  Doric  pile  fronting  the  sea. 

"  The  first  thing  that  struck  me  as  I  waited  for  a 
moment  while  the  porter  went  to  ask  the  Rectora  to 
show  us  over,  were  the  bright  faces  and  the  ringing 
laughter  of  some  fifty  children,  who  were  playing  in 
the  capacious  quadrangle  and  the  beautifully-kept  gar- 
den within  the  walls,  where  the  heliotrope,  dahlia,  ge- 
ranium, and  many  tropical  flowers  were  in  full  bloom. 
Air,  light,  and  cleanliness  seemed  characteristics  of  the 
place  at  a  first  glance. 

"  The  Hosijicio,  perhaps,  may  be  best  described  as  an 
English  workhouse,  stripped  of  its  bitterness,  and  in- 
vested, if  I  may  use  the  expression,  with  many  privi- 


ADIOSl  393 

leges.  It  is  a  real  rest,  a  real  home  for  the  poor  who 
are  decentes  (respectable) ;  a  refuge  for  the  young 
women  who  are  homeless  or  out  of  place  ;  a  school  and 
home  for  children ;  and  an  asylum  for  the  aged  of  both 
sexes.  The  prison  look,  the  prison  restrictions,  the  re- 
fractory ward,  and  the  tramps'  ward  —  all  these  are  un- 
known at  the  Hospicio.  Accordingly,  it  is  looked  upon 
as  a  home  by  the  hundreds  of  both  sexes  who  flock  to 
its  shelter. 

"  The  Home  is  supported  by  a  yearly  voluntary  grant 
from  the  town  government,  the  nearest  estimate  that  I 
could  obtain  of  the  actual  cost  of  keeping  it  up  being 
five  thousand  pounds  per  annum.  The  actual  number 
of  inmates  at  the  time  was  eight  hundred  and  forty-two. 
The  place  is  generally  much  fuller,  the  number  of  beds 
made  up,  or  capable  of  being  made  up,  being  close  upon 
a  thousand. 

"The  place  is  open  to  all  who  need  assistance,  on 
then-  presenting  at  the  door  an  order  from  the  town 
government  testifying  that  they  are  decentes, 

"  The  aged  poor  come  in,  and  live  and  die  here,  sur- 
rounded by  all  the  little  comforts  that  old  age  stands 
in  need  of;  if  they  like  they  can  go  out  for  a  while  to 
visit  their  friends,  and  return  to  their  home  again.  On 
all  the  feast  days  (and  their  name  in  Spain  is  legion), 
their  friends  and  relatives  have  free  access  to  them,  as 
well  as  on  Sundays.  The  friends  may  bring  them 
whatever  they  like  in  the  shape  of  food,  or  wine,  or,  if 
they  have  money,  they  can  send  out  and  buy  it  for 
themselves.  The  men  can  have  their  smoke  as  at 
their  own  house — a  luxury  denied,  and  how  need- 
lessly !  in  some  English  workhouses. 


894  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

"  As  regards  the  children's  department,  any  child  is 
qualified  to  enter  the  Home,  until  it  can  obtain  its  own 
living,  who  is  either  an  orphan  or  one  of  a  large  and 
poor  family.  They  are  all  divided  into  classes.  Any 
parent  can  come  to  the  Home  and  obtain  leave  of 
the  Rectora  to  take  her  child  home  for  the  day,  from 
nine  o'clock  until  the  set  of  sun.  The  children  are  first 
taught  to  read,  write,  cipher,  and  sing;  they  then  are 
taught  any  trade  that  they  or  their  parents  desire.  .  .  • 

"  Thence  to  see  the  convalescents  (of  a  House  of 
Mercy)  dining.  In  a  long,  cheerful  room,  there  they 
were,  looking  over  the  bright  blue  sea,  and  eating 
heartily,  and  trying  to  talk  —  for  they  could  only  try. 
They  were  men  from  every  clime  and  of  many  tongues, 
for  this  institution  takes  in  all  alike ;  an  English  sailor, 
who  had  fallen  from  the  mast,  and  whose  captain  paid 
for  him  ;  one  or  two  Finlanders,  in  the  same  case ;  an 
American,  from  '  Philadelphy,'  as  he  said  ;  one  or  two 
Moors,  and  several  Spaniards,  made  up  this  strange  but 
cheerful  dinner  party.  The  American  told  me 'they 
were  very  comfortable  quarters,'  with  a  genuine  new- 
country  twang. 

" The  whole  woik  is  done  by  seven  superintending 
Sisters  of  Mercy  whose  smiling  faces  are  a  medicine  in 
themselves.  They  wear  a  simple  black  dress,  plain 
black  cross,  and  white  starched  cape  or  collar :  and  if 
they  have  any  pride,  it  seems  to  me  it  is  to  do  good." 

Mr.  Augustus  Hare,  in  his  "  Wanderings  in  Spain," 
gives  the  same  testimony  in  favor  of  the  natural  kind- 
ness of  the  Spanish  nation  ;  and  I  insist  here  so  much 
on  this  point  because,  thanks  to  Mr.  Ford,  an  opinion 
has  been  spread  abroad  that  nothing  was  more  horrible 


ADIOS!  395 

than  the  cruelty  and  disregard  with  which  the  sick  and 
the  poor  were  treated  in  the  public  institutions  of  Spain. 
Justly  enraged  against  the  Spanish  doctors,  "  the  base, 
brutal,  and  bloody  Sangrados^'^  Mr.  Ford  went  on 
attacking  everything  with  which  they  were  connected. 
But  in  this,  as  in  many  other  things,  the  Spanish  nation 
is  greatly  abused. 

"We  have  quite  laid  aside  (says  Mr.  Hare)  all 
thought  of  the  mistrust  which  is  a  necessary  habit  in 
Italy.  .  .  ,  Even  the  poorest  peasant  who  has  shown 
us  our  way,  and  who  had  walked  a  considerable  distance 
to  do  so,  has  invariably  refused  to  receive  anything  for 
his  services ;  yet  all  are  most  willing  and  anxious  to 
help  strangers.  .  .  .  The  temporal  works  of  mercy,  — 
to  give  bread  to  the  hungry  and  drink  to  the  thirsty,  to 
take  care  of  the  sick,  to  visit  the  captive,  and  to  bury 
the  dead,  —  these  are  the  common  duties  which  none 
shrink  from." 

What  Mr.  Hare  says  here  obviously  refers  to  the 
kindly  feelings  not  only  of  the  Spanish  women,  but  of 
the  men  as  well,  and  the  affectionate  nature  of  the 
Spaniards  in  general  is  scarcely  better  illustrated  in 
anything  than  in  the  relations  between  master  and 
servant.  Of  course,  if  you  would  judge  by  the  state  of 
these  relations  in  Madrid,  you  would  never  come  to 
any  favorable  conclusion,  for,  tel  maitre^  tel  valet,  and 
the  corrupted  Madrid  politicians  and  empleados  have 
duly  spread  their  wretched  influence  throughout  all 
classes  ;  but  outside  of  the  capital,  wherever  you  go  — 
provided  you  are  capable  at  all  of  treating  a  poorer 
human  being  than  yourself  as  one  morally  equal  to  you 
—  you  will  never  have  the  slightest  reason  for  com- 


396  SPAIN  AND   THE   SPANIARDS. 

plaining  of  the  Spaniard  of  even  the  very  lowest  class. 
Mr.  Ford  says,  for  instance,  with  reference  to  the  Spanish 
servant,  — 

"  To  secure  a  real  good  servant  is  of  the  utmost  con- 
sequence to  all  who  make  out-of-tlie-way  excursions  in 
the  Peninsula ;  for,  as  in  the  East,  he  becomes  not  only 
cook,  but  interpreter  and  companion  to  his  master.  It 
is,  therefore,  of  great  importance  to  get  a  person  with 
whom  a  man  can  ramble  over  those  wild  scenes.  The 
so  doing  ends,  on  the  part  of  the  attendant,  in  an 
almost  canine  friendship ;  and  the  Spaniard,  when  the 
tour  is  done,  is  broken-hearted,  and  ready  to  leave  his 
home,  horse,  ass,  and  wife  to  follow  his  master,  like  a 
dog,  to  the  world's  end." 

This  was  written  long  ago,  and  thhigs  have  not 
changed  since.  One  day,  whilst  riding  along  the  high 
road  near  Alsasua,  I  noticed  by  the  road-side  a  poor 
little  chap  of  about  fourteen  or  fifteen  years  of  age, 
almost  barefooted,  for  the  remnant  of  hempen  san- 
dals could  certainly  not  be  counted  for  much,  a  pair 
of  cotton  trousers,  a  cotton  shirt,  and  a  cotton  hand- 
kerchief tied  round  his  head,  forming  his  costume.  He 
was  crying  bitterly,  and  this  caused  me  to  stop  and  ask 
him  what  was  the  matter.  "Nothing,"  he  said,  in  a 
rude,  harsh  voice,  evidently  displeased  by  my  interrog- 
atory; but  as  I  went  on, talking,  he  soon  told  me  that 
he  had  come  all  the  way  from  Lerin,  with  a  view  to 
enlist  in  one  of  the  Carlist  battalions,  and  that  the 
chiefs  refused  to  accept  him  on  account  of  his  youth 
and  short  stature.  "They  would  not  take  me  even  as 
a  trumpeter,"  said  he,  still  crying  bitterly,  "  and  I  have 
now  nowhere  to  go ;  for  I  left  my  master,  in  whose 


ADIOS!  397 

service  I  was  engaged  as  a  mule-driver."  I  tlien  asked 
him  if  he  knew  anything  about  horses.  "  Why,  I  tell 
you,"  answered  he,  in  an  almost  coarse  tone,  "that  I 
have  always  served  as  a  mule-driver.  I  don't  think 
there  is  a  great  difference  between  a  horse  and  a  mule." 
The  rough  but  honest  look  of  the  boy  caused  me  to 
take  him  into  my  service,  and  in  about  a  fortnight  he 
was  so  accustomed  to  the  work  he  had  tp  do  that  I 
could  easily  dispense  with  two  perfectly  unpolishable 
orderlies,  granted  to  me  from  the  staff  of  Don  Carlos, 
and  the  little  Cipriano  Solano  became  my  valet,  my 
cook,  my  groom,  and  everything  else. 

When  once,  during  our  rambles,  we  reached  a  village 
within  about  three  miles  of  his  native  place,  he  sud- 
denly disappeared  for  several  hours,  and  came  back 
with  his  mother  and  three  sisters  —  all  of  whom  he 
introduced  to  me  in  the  most  friendly  manner.  The 
women  shook  hands  with  me,  presented  me  with  a  lot 
of  apples,  grapes,  and  eggs,  and  began  at  once  to  treat 
me  in  the  way  they  would  have  treated  a  member  of 
their  own  family.  The  mother,  during  the  conversa- 
tion, took  me  apart,  and  anxiously  asked  me  not  only 
to  be  kind  towards  the  chico  (little  one),  but  especially 
to  watch  over  his  morals.  "  Do  not  leave  him  alone 
with  that  disreputable  lot  of  volunteers,"  said  she. 
"  They  ar^  all  very  brave  and  nice  fellows,  but  they 
are  so  very,  very  fast,  and  Cipriano  is  quite  a  child 
yet,"  added  she,  and  two  big  drops  of  tears  appeared 
on  her  long  eyelashes,  and  rolled  down  her  old,  parch- 
ment-like face. 

The  little  boy  was  so  short  that  when  he  had  to 
groom  my  big  chestnut  mare  he  was    compelled  to 


398  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS, 

stand  upon  a  chair,  or  upon  the  stump  of  a  tree,  yet 
he  did  the  work  always  thoroughly.  It  was  sometimes 
difficult  to  bring  him  to  understand  how  you  wanted  a 
thing  to  be  done;  but,  once  he  had  learned  a  thing,  he 
would  not  only  not  neglect  doing  it,  but  become  quite 
proud  of  his  accomplishment,  and  frequently  give  in- 
struction to  his  comrades.  Two  or  three  times  I  took 
him  over  to  France,  and  though  he  did  not  know  a 
word  of  Basque,  still  less  of  French,  he  got  on  remark- 
ably well.  For  the  sake  of  fun,  a  party  of  friends  and 
myself  made  him  once  ride  behind  us  when  we  were 
going  to  some  races  at  Biarritz.  We  had  tickets  for 
the  committee's  enclosure,  but  Cipriano,  having  none, 
was  stopped  by  a  gendarme,  who  began  to  argue  with 
him.  We  left  him  purposely  behind,  watching  the 
result  of  the  discussion,  and  in  a  minute  or  two  saw 
the  boy  give  a  kick  to  his  horse,  and  almost  jump  over 
the  gendarme's  head,  swearing  most  unceremoniously 
at  the  puzzled  guardian  of  order.  When  the  races 
were  over,  Cipriano  handed  me  a  couple  of  francs  in 
small  coin,  and,  on  my  inquiring  what  the  money  was, 
he  explained  that  he  had  been  paid  for  the  horses  he 
held  during  the  race.  He  understoocl,  that  since  he 
was  in  my  service,  anything  he  earned  was  my  prop- 
erty. As  to  take  any  interest  in  the  race  when  there 
were  horses  to  be  attended  to,  that  w^as  out  of  the 
question. 

At  St.-Jean-de-Luz,  the  boy  gave  me  some  trouble 
once.  He  had  taken  his  after-dinner  siesta  in  an  empty 
omnibus  standing  close  by  his  stable,  and  went  to  sleep. 
A  batch  of  urchins,  discovering  him  there,  proceeded  to 
take  away  his  sandals  and  his  cap,  as  a  practical  joke, 


ADIOS  /  399 

when  he  woke  up,  and  began  to  fight  the  whole  party, 
furiously  crying  out,  in  Spanish  fashion,  for  their  tripas 
(bowels).  A  policeman  just  passing  by  captured  him, 
and  locked  him  up  for  having  fought,  as  well  as  for 
being  "  a  Spaniard  without  a  passport  properly  vise^^ 
and  I  had  some  difficulty  in  rescuing  the  little  savage. 
But  apart  from  these  little  extravagances,  the  boy's 
attachment  to  myself,  and  still  more,  I  believe,  to  his 
horses,  had  really  no  limits.  When  I  had  to  return  to 
England,  and  first  told  him  of  it,  he  became  fearfully 
cross,  did  not  answer  a  word,  but  left  the  room  before 
I  had  time  to  tell  him  what  I  wanted,  and  disappeared 
for  the  rest  of  the  day.  When  I  inquired  of  the  ser- 
vant of  the  house  where  he  was,  I  learned  that  he  had 
locked  himself  up  in  the  stable,  was  crying  all  day,  and 
had  not  taken  any  food  whatever.  All  attempts  on  my 
part  to  persuade  him  that  I  would  probably  soon  come 
back  again,  were  of  no  avail.  He  became  somewhat 
less  morose  only  when  he  learned  that  a  colleague  of 
mine,  a  gentleman  he  knew  well,  had  bought  two  of 
my  horses,  and  was  willing  to  take  him  into  his  service. 
I  am,  however,  afraid  the  boy  will  never  forgive  me  ray 
having  abandoned  him.  On  the  day  I  started  from  St.- 
Jean-de-Luz  I  sent  several  times  for  him,  wishing  to  bid 
him  good  by,  and  to  make  him  a  little  present.  But  he 
never  came,  and  after  having  answered  to  the  last  mes- 
senger I  sent  for  him,  that  he' did  not  wish  to  see  me, 
disappeared  from  his  stable,  so  that  I  had  to  take  the 
train  without  even  shaking  hands  with  him. 


400  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

But  however  high  an  opinion  one  may  have  of  the 
natural  merits  of  the  Spaniards,  their  ignorance  never 
fails  to  shock  the  stranger.  In  high  as  in  low  classes 
it  is  equally  amazing  —  and  the  more  so  as  it  is  cer- 
tainly not  through  a  want  of  capacities  or  intelligence 
that  the  Spanish  nation  is  kept  so  far  behind  those  very 
nations  of  which  it  was  formerly,  in  many  respects,  the 
teacher.  Whether  you  take  a  Spaniard  of  the  lower 
class,  and  instruct  and  train  him  in  something,  or  one 
of  the  upper  classes,  whose  education  has  been  spe- 
cially favored  by  circumstances,  they  are  both  equally 
sure  to  turn  out  as  able  men  as  you  could  find  any- 
where. Men  like  Senor  Chao,  the  late  minister  of 
Fomento ;  like  Luis  Maria  Pastor,  the  economist,  de- 
ceased a  short  time  since;  like  Brigadier  Ibanez, 
director  of  the  Geographical  Institute  of  Madrid,  and 
a  number  of  others,  would  do,  by  their  learning,  honor 
to  any  country.  The  acquirements  of  the  latter  of 
these  gentlemen  had  a  European  homage  paid  to  them 
by  his'  having  been  unanimously  elected  president  of 
the  International  Metre  Commission,  to  which  every 
European  country  has  appointed  men  highly  respected 
for  their  scientific  knowledge.  But,  unhappily,  such 
cases  are  but  rare,  very  rare,  exceptions.  The  ignorance 
of  the  great  mass  of  the  people  exceeds  anything  that 
can  be  seen  anywhere  in  Europe,  the  Danubian  Princi- 
palities and  Turkey  excepted.  And  one  of  the  imme- 
diate results  of  this  ignorance  is,  of  course,  a  childish 
credulity  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  childish  inaccuracy  in 
statements  on  the  other.  We  constantly  hear  English- 
men complaining  of  the  impossibility  of  getting  from 
a  Spaniard  a  straightforward  answer  to  a  straightfor- 


ADIOSl  401 

ward  question,  and  Spanish  newspapers  are  frequently 
accused  of  simply  telling  lies.  All  these  accusations 
have  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  them,  but  they  are  cer- 
tainly not  the  result  of  a  deliberate  desire  on  the 
part  of  Spaniards  to  tell  lies,  but  simply  the  result 
chiefly  of  their  ignorance,  and  partly  of  their  temper- 
ament. Fancies,  ideas,  and  beliefs  have  always  played 
too  prominent  a  part  in  the  Spaniard's  life  to  allow  him 
to  be  a  precise,  matter-of  fact  man ;  and  in  making  a 
false  statement,  —  a  statement  in  which  he  would  him- 
self not  believe  if  he  had  thought  for  a  moment, — the 
Spaniard  does  so  simply  because  his  imagination  embel- 
lishes and  ornaments,  or  disfigures,  as  the  case  may  be, 
the  plain,  common  fact,  of  which  he  has  never  been 
made  to  understand  either  the  abstract  or  even  the 
practical  meaning. 

This  want  of  precision  and  correctness  in  statements 
and  information  is,  however,  not  peculiar  to  the  Span- 
iards only.  The  more  a  man  is  ignorant,  or  a  nation 
backward,  the  more  they  are  sure  to  be  credulous  and 
unreliable.  Look  at  the  information  the  travellers  get 
from  savages  about  things  they  have  actually  seen,  and 
compare  them  with  those  one  gets  from  a  well-informed 
Englishman  or  German,  on  events  which  neither  have 
actually  witnessed.  Between  these  two  poles  of  igno- 
rance and  knowledge,  of  loose  fancy  and  strict  matter- 
of-fact  criticism,  range  the  various  nations  of  the  world, 
as  well  as  the  individual  human  beings,  according  to 
the  comparative  degree  of  precision  of  their  minds  and 
of  their  faculties  of  observation.  And,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  the  more  the  religion  of  a  nation  or  of  a  man 
tends  to  paralyze  the  spirit  of  free  inquiry,  the  more 
26 


402  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS. 

they  must  necessarily  be  liable  to  remain  behind  in  this 
respect.  This  is  one  of  the  chief  reasons  why  people 
belonging  to  the  Catholic  church,  notwithstanding 
their  high  culture  in  every  other  respect,  invariably 
proved  more  ignorant  and  less  precise  in  what  they 
knew  than  those  belonging  to  the  Protestant  church; 
and  Spaniards,  constantly  accused  of  telling  lies,  do  so 
by  no  means  more  deliberately  than  the  French  or  the 
Italians.  The  general  unreliableness  of  the  Latin  race 
is  but  one  of  the  natural  results  of  the  whole  of  their 
historical  development,  and  the  degree  it  is  capable  of 
reaching  even  in  our  days  has  been  only  too  strikingly 
illustrated  during  the  last  French  war,  when  all  com- 
munications from  French  sources  were,  with  scarcely 
any  exception,  utterly  destitute  of  foundation.  I  made 
the  sad  experience  of  never  having  been  able  to  arrive 
at  anything  like  the  truth  all  the  time  I  was  with  the 
French  army;  and  every  one  knows  that,  not  only 
when  the  disasters  began,  but  at  the  very  outset  of 
the  campaign,  the  French  military  authorities  gathered 
their  information  about  their  own  troops  from  English 
papers.  At  Metz,  generals  and  staff  oiBcers  were  con- 
stantly asking  the  numerous  English  correspondents  for 
information  of  this  sort ;  and  at  Chalons  the  officers  of 
McMahon's  staff  came  several  times  a  day  to  me  to 
inquire  whether  I  had  not  received  the  English  papers, 
and  whether  I  could  not  communicate  to  them  what 
was  going  on  under  the  walls  of  Metz.  The  French 
disasters  had  been  attributed  to  French  heedlessness, 
and  to  the  general  mismanagement  of  the  empire. 
But  a  considerable  portion  of  them  could  be  clearly 
traced  to  the  incapacity  of  the  average  Frenchman  of 


ADIOS I  403 

either  carefully  collecting  information,  or  of  transmit- 
ting it  without  disfiguring  it.  And  if  sucli  is  the  case 
with  France,  what  cannot  be  expected  from  Spain  —  a 
country  in  every  respect  much  more  susceptible  of 
developing  men's  fancy  at  the  expense  of  men's  ca- 
pacity of  calm  observation  and  inquiry  ? 

But,  however  great  is  still  the  ignorance  of  Spaniards 
as  a  nation,  some  improvement  is  already  beginning 
to  be  perceptible  at  least  in  their  governing  classes. 
Spanish  statesmen  of  our  days  are  men  of  quite  the 
average  amount  of  knowledge  spread  throughout  the 
same  class  of  men  abroad.  While  barely  forty  years 
ago  the  government  of  the  unlucky  country  was  virtu- 
ally in  the  hands  of  persons  like  the  milliner  Teresita, 
the  all-powerful  friend  and  counsellor  of  Christina;  of 
lionchi,  the  dentist  of  the  dey,  a  man  who  had  to  fly 
from  Tangiers  on  account  of  his  breaking  a  tooth  of 
one  of  the  dey's  wives ;  of  the  Marquis  of  Ceralbo, 
who,  when  sent  out  to  find  a  fourth  wife  for  Ferdinand 
VIL,  oflacially  asked  the  hand  of  the  king  of  Sardinia's 
daughter,  already  married  several  years  before ;  or  of 
Cafranga,  whom  Metternich  rendered  so  celebrated  by 
preserving  and  showing  everywhere  a  visiting  card, 
bearing  under  Cafranga's  name,  and  in  his  own  hand- 
writing, the  inscription  of  "  chef  de  bourreau  (hang- 
man, instead  of  bureau)  du  minist^re  de  grace  et  jus- 
tice." These  fearful  times  are  gone,  and  let  us  hope 
forever.  The  improvement  of  the  Spanish  state  ma- 
chinery may  be  slow,  but  it  has  at  all  events  some 
chance  of  success  now,  provided  foreigners  do  not 
interfere  once  more,  and  home  statesmen  do  not  too 
much  insist  upon  ruhng  by  means  of  some  mixed  sys- 


404  SPAIN  AND   THE  SPANIARDS, 

tem,  of  a  kind  oi  juste  milieu^  which  is  sure  never  to 
take  in  a  country  where  ^  hatred  and  sympathies  are 
alike  strong,  acute,  and  unalterable,  and  submit  to  no 
conciliation  for  reasons  of  interest." 


But  I  must  decidedly  close.  The  patience  of  my 
readers  is  probably  exhausted,  and  so  are  the  time  and 
space  which  were  allowed  to  me.  The  national  steam- 
ship Egypt,  lying  in  all  her  transatlantic  grandeur  in 
the  River  Mersey,  is  getting  up  steam,  and  will  in  a  few 
hours  take  me  on  board,  and  carry  me  away  to  another 
and  quite  different  land.  I  shall  certainly  have  much 
to  learn  in  the  new  and  marvellous  world  created  by 
the  efforts  of  American  genius.  But  amid  all  the 
splendors  and  miracles  of  industry,  the  reminiscences 
of  semi-savage  Spain  will,  I  am  sure,  frequently  return 
to  my  mind  as  so  many  delightful  dreams  of  the  past. 

Adieu,  charmante  et  noble  Espagne, 
Adieu,  peut-^tre  pour  to uj ours. 
Mais  je  garderai  pour  tes  vieux  bourgs, 
Ton  ciel  ardent,  tes  belles  montagnes, 
Ta  race  altiere,  ta  riante  eampagne, 
Tes  femmes,  surtout,  ma  chere  Espagne, 
Un  eternel,  profond  amour. 


THE    END. 


BY  THE  AUTHOR  OF  KATHERINE  EARLE, 


AN  AMERICAN    GIRL   ABROAD. 

By  ADELINE  TRAFTON. 

1  Tolume.      IGmo.      Illustrated.      Price,  $1.50. 


OPINIONS    OF    TH£    PRESS. 

.  .  .  "  We  do  not  remember  when  we  have  enjoyed  so  rich  a  treat  as  this  afifords.* 
—  Christian  Weekly,  New  York. 

.  .  .  "Altogether,  it  is  the  most  entertaining  book  of  the  kind  that  has  come  to 
hand  since  Mark  Twain  gave  the  world  the  benefit  of  his  'Innocents  Abroad.'"  — 
Hearth  and  Home,  New  York. 

.  .  .  "To  say  that  this  young  authoress  has  given  us  an  entertaining  book  of 
foreign  travel,  would  be  to  award  but  scant  praise  to  the  wit,  humor,  and  keen  appreci- 
ation of  all  that  she  encounters,  which  overflow  her  chapters  with  fresh  and  sparkling 
conceits."  —  Republicaji,  New  York. 

.  .  .  "  We  can  assure  the  reader  that  this  book  of  travels  will  be  delightful  reading. 
One  feels  as  though  he  were  in  the  society  of  a  gay,  witty,  quick-eyed  girl,  full  of 
frolic,  enjoying  dearly  a  joke,  even  at  herself."  —  Courier-Journal,  Louisville. 

.  .  .  "  A  bright,  merry-hearted  giil,  'off  on  a  good  time ;'  and  she  and  her  readers 
are  decidedly  of  the  opinion  that  the  journey  was  a  grand  success.  One  very  seldom 
meets  with  so  graphically  amusing  an  account  of  a  sea  voyage  as  that  found  in  the  first 
chapter."  — Liberal  Christian,  New  York. 

.  .  .  "  A  narrative  of  a  tour  of  Europe,  written  in  a  piquant,  charming,  and  witty 
style.  The  writer  is  so  vivacious  and  genial  as  to  insure  universal  approbation.  As  a 
book  of  travel  it  is  unexceptional."  —  Gazette,  Louisville. 

.  .  .  "A  more  sprightly  and  graphic  book  of  travels  abroad  one  does  not  often 
read.  It  has  an  originality  all  its  own,  that  makes  it  uncommonly  fascinating.  Open 
it  where  you  will,  the  piece  attracts  and  holds  you  attracted."  —  S.  S.  Times,  Phila. 

.  .  .  "Miss  Trafton  never  forgets  her  nationality;  is  not  overawed  by  the  glitter 
of  wealth  and  show.  There  are  no  girlish  sentimentalisms,  no  rhapsodies  over  French 
fineries,  no  adoration  of  royal  grandeur  ;  neither  is  there  any  of  the  prudishness  or 
stilted  essayisms  of  the  strong-minded  woman  of  the  period.  It  is  the  free,  untram- 
melled, pure-hearted  girl,  that  takes  you  into  a  sweet  confidence,  and  tells  her  story 
just  as  a  noble,  sensible  girl  should  and  would.  She  captivates  you,  and  carries  you 
along  with  unabated  enthusiasm."  —  Literary  World,  Boston. 


LEE  &  SHEPAED,  Publishers,  Boston. 
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Mr.  Caudle  Speaks, 


FIRESIDE    SAINTS. 

Mr.  Caudle's  Breakfast  Talk, 

AND   OTHER  PAPERS. 
Compiled    by  J.    E.    BABSON. 

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•  •  .  •*  An  array  of  Douglas  Jerrold's  irony,  sarcasm,  wit,  and  humor,  that  vriH 
be  welcome  to  his  admirers."  —  Commercial  Bulletin,  Boston. 

•  •  .  •'  It  is  singular  that  so  large  a  number  of  such  delightful  papers,  by  that 
most  genial  jester,  Douglas  Jerrold,  should  have  lain  so  long  unbound."  —  The  Titrust 
Chicago. 

•  •  •  "The  sketches  in  this  book  are  quite  diverse  in  character,  but  all  made 
pleasant  by  that  subtle  vein  of  humor,  that  quaint  fancy,  and  that  easy  and  graceful 
style,  which  lent  such  a  charm  to  all  of  Douglas  Jerrold's  works."  —  Golden  Age, 
New  York. 

•  •  •  "None  of  the  papers  in  this  volume  are  included  in  the  collected  works 
of  the  author,  and  will  therefore  be  read  with  keen  delight." — Advertiser,  Portland. 

.  .  •  "These  essays,  though  many  of  them  so  brief  and  light  as  to  be  prop- 
erly denominated  thumb-nail  sketches,  merit  preservation  with  the  other  writings  oi 
this  spicy  and  pungent  author."  —  Post,  Chicago. 

,  •  .  "  Everybody  knows  Douglas  Jerrold  —  he  of  the  caustic  humor  and  biting 
wit  ;  he  who  could  \iTite  as  sweetly  and  sunny  as  the  most  genial,  and  at  the  same 
time  could  wield  the  arrows  of  satire  as  could  no  other  English  v/nter." -^ Keystone, 
PhUudelphia. 


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By  the  Author  of  ''IN  TRUST: 


HOME     NOOK; 

Or,  The  Crown  of  Duty, 

By  Miss  A.  M.  DOUGLAS. 

AUTHOR    OF    "STEPHEN    DANE,"     SYDNIE    ADRIANCE,"     "CLAUDIE,"    "kATHIM 
STORIES,"   &C,   &C. 

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•  •     •    "A  charming  picture  of  home  life."  —  Presbyterian  Bannery  Pittsburg. 

•  •     •    "The  book  is  a  charming  love  story."  —  Christian  Era,  Boston. 
..."  Designed  to  inculcate  high  moral  lessons."  —  Daily  Union,  Schenectady. 
...    "Miss  Douglas  is  rapidly  winning  fame  as  a  pleasing,  conscientious  wri" 

ter."  —  Courier,  New  Haven. 

.  ,  .  "Freighted  with  good  thoughts,  and  well  ballasted  with  good  sense."  — 
Maine  Standard,  A  u. 

.  .  .  "It  has  a  charm,  however,  peculiar  to  itself  in  the  perfect  simplicity  with 
which  it  is  told."  —  The  Spy,  Worcester. 

.  .  .  "  Of  many  story-tellers,  few  have  handled  their  subject  with  such  delicate 
feeling  and  good  sense. "  —  Loomis  Jotcrnal,  New  Haven. 

...  "We  cannot  omit  to  express  our  high  appreciation  of  the  literary  character 
of  the  work,  and  the  moral  lesson  which  it  so  forcibly  inculcates."—  The  Methodist^ 
New  York. 

.  .  .  "A  hearty,  healthy  story.  The  atmosphere  of  the  book  is  clear,  and  in 
reading  it  you  enlarge  your  circle  of  pleasant  friends."  —  Courier,  Boston. 

.  .  .  "An  interestmg  stoiy  of  home  life,  not  wanting  in  incident,  and  written 
VL\  a  forcible  and  attractive  style.  Miss  Douglas's  previous  novels  have  been  very 
popular." — Graphic t  New  York. 

.  .  .  "  All  her  works  are  very  agreeable,  but  her  last  effort  surpasses  its  prede- 
cessors in  the  strength  and  force  of  her  characteis,  and  the  breadth  and  finish  of  style." 
'"Item,  Philadelphia. 

.  .  .  '*  To  those  who  already  know  Miss  Douglas's  power  of  investing  her 
characters  with  individual  life  and  personality,  it  is  not  necessary  to  say  that  thii  ii 
a  book  of  no  ordinary  excellence  in  this  respect."—  Tributie,  Detroit. 


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"  The  most  Fasciitating  Novel  of  the  Day" 


THE   ITALIAN   GIRL 

By  Mrs.  KATHIME  SED&WICK  WASHBIM. 
A  XTew  Edition  ready  to-day.  Frice,  $1.50.  All  Booksellers  baTt  it. 


THE  ITALIAN  GIRL 

HEROINE  is  an  Italian  Girl  whose  romantic  experiences  are  rery  interesting.— 
Pitt.  Ch'n, 

|h    MINENTLY  a  love  story  teaching  a  good  lesson.  —  Portland  Press, 

TnTENSELY  dramatic  and  exciting.  —N.  B.  Mercury. 
I    HE  vivid  colors  in  which  characters  are  painted,  will  attract  —  SaUm  Gaseitt, 
/^  FASCINATING  and  well-ymltenstory.—PerilatuiArgyts. 
I       IVELY,  fresh,  and  vivid. — Providence  Journal. 
I  T  abounds  in  vigorous  pictures  of  Italian  life.  —  Boston  Transcript. 
ZJk    VERY  well-written  story,  romantic  yet  probable.  —  Philadelphia  Press. 
r^J  OVEL  of  rare  literary  and  artistic  merit  —  Suffolk  County  JoumoL 

GOOD,  especially  good,  is  the  part  which  treats  of  her  deind  on  the  stage.  — 
Palladium. 
IT  cannot  be  said  to  be  dull,  whatever  may  be  said  for  or  against  it — NewpcH 
News. 
RECOMMEND  it  as  a  work  which  cannot  fail  to  interest  and  charm  them.— 
Boston  Gazette. 
LOVERS  of  art  and  Italy  will  read  with  keen  interest  this  fresh  story.  — Bof 
ton  Traveller. 

"The  Italian  Girl,  by  Mrs.  Katharine  Sedgwick  Washburn,  is  a  brilliant  and 
diarming  love  story.  We  cordially  recommend  it  to  our  readers  as  a  work  that  caunot 
fell  to  interest  and  charm  them,  not  only  by  the  clearness  of  the  story,  but  by  tha 
sparkling  and  artstic  manner  in  which  it  is  treated."  —  Boston  Gazette. 


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"  The  Old  Kentucky  Homer 

«  ■ 

LORD    OF    HIMSELF. 

A  Novel. 

By  FRANCIS  H.  UNDERWOOD. 

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.  •  •  "A  well-written  and  thoroughly  interesting  novel." — DaUy  Grapkie^ 
ITew  York, 

.  •  •  "Adds  to  its  attractiveness,  as  a  novel,  the  charm  of  elevated  sentiment 
Ci^ressed  in  elegant  and  forcible  English."  —  Glohe^  Boston, 

•  •  •  "  A  story  of  life  in  Kentucky  some  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago,  and  as  a 
picture  of  the  life  of  that  epoch,  this  book  possesses  great  merit.  It  is  faithful,  vivid, 
and  spirited,  without  being  overdone."  —  Tribune^  New  York. 

•  .  .  "  It  may  be  said  of  '  Lord  of  Himself,'  that  it  is  a  good  story.  After  the 
reader  has  gone  a  few  pages  into  it,  he  is  curious  to  know  what  is  to  happen  in  the  last 
chapter.  It  is  also  a  full  story.  There  is  not  a  chapter  in  it  which  is  not  worth 
reading.  .  .  .  Mr.  Underwood  has  entertained  and  instructed  us.  He  has  given 
us  some  admirable  pictures  of  particular  people,  and  a  very  life-like  representation  of 
a  society  and  a  period  "  — New  York  Evening  Post. 

.  .  .  "  The  scene  of  the  story  changes  only  temporarily  from  the  neighborhood 
of  Beech  Knoll,  but  the  author  finds  there  abuudant  variety  of  character  and  incident 
to  enrich  the  story.  And  of  the  studies  of  character,  it  ought  to  be  said  that  they  are 
excellent.  Uncle  Ralph  Beauchamp,  the  Fleemister  family,  Howard,  the  New  Eng- 
lander,  Adams,  the  Hoosier  lawyer,  the  Wyndham  family,  and  Miss  Shelbum  and  the 
slaves,  are  all  careful  studies  in  character  delineatioi.,  distinctly  individualized,  natural 
in  action,  and  neither  in  faults  nor  virtues  beyond  the  reasonable  capacity  of  human 
beings.  Their  relations  to  each  other  are  distinctly  defined,  and  they  severally  act 
their  parts  as  if  inspired  by  their  own  proper  motives."  —  Boston  Daily  Adzertiser, 


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By  the  "  Learned  Blacksmithr 


TEN    MINUTE    TALKS 

On    all    Sorts   of  Topics. 

By    ELIHU    BURRITT. 

WITH 

JJV  AUTO-BIOGRAPHY   OF  THE  AUTHOR. 

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•  •  .  *'The  book  is  as  varied,  fresh,  and  inviting  as  one  could  wish." —  Tki 
Herald,  Utica,  N.  Y. 

.  .  .  "Mr.  Burritt's  writings  are  strongly  marked  by  the  vigor  of  his  character, 
and  contain  a  great  amount  of  careful  thought  and  happy  illustration."  —  Inter-Ocean^ 
Chicago. 

...  "These  essays  form  a  book  full  of  very  pleasant  reading,  and  of  a  certain 
earnest  eloquence  and  thought  exceedingly  attractive  to  the  reader." — The  Post, 
Hartford. 

...  "The  present  volume  is  a  peculiarly  welcome  one  on  many  accounts.  The 
Autobiography  alone  would  make  the  book  popular."  — H earth atid Home,  New  York. 

.  .  .  "The 'learned  blacksmith'  has  forged  many  a  fine  thought  and  sentence 
to  be  found  in  the  present  work." — The  Bulletitu,  Norwich. 

,  .  .  "The  writings  in  this  voluume  will  be  read  with  interest  both  from  thsir 
intrinsic  value  and  the  character  of  their  author.  They  are  mostly  plain,  direct,  un- 
aflfected  statements  on  subjects  of  general  importance.  They  show  the  ability  of  tha 
thinker  as  well  as  the  cultivation  of  the  scholar.  Wise  in  suggestion,  fertile  in  illustra- 
tion, and  happy,  often  pungent,  in  expression,  they  afford  a  favorable  specimen  of  tha 
contrib'itions  of  a  blacksmith  to  the  literature  of  the  country." — TAe  Tribum, 
New  V  irk. 


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**  A  Charming  Romance  of  Girlhood^ 


SEVEN    DAUGHTERS. 


By  Miss  A.  M.  DOUGLAS. 


AUTHOR    OF    "STEPHEN    DANK,"     SYDNIE    ADRIANCE,"  ,  "CLAUDIA,"    "KATKIS 
STORIES,"  ,&C,   &C 


Oba  Vol.  16mo.  Zllustrftted.  Frioe,  $1.50. 


•  •     •    "The  spirit  of  the  book  is  admirable." —  Transcript,  Portland. 

•  •  .  "A  natural,  vivacious,  pure  story,  one  of  Miss  Douglas's  best  efforts.** 
Methodist,  N.  Y. 

...  "We  can  heartily  commend  it  as  unexceptional  in  its  teachings  and 
tendencies."—?'^  Christian  World,  N.  Y. 

•  .  ,  "A  very  charming  and  lively  book,  the  sale  of  which  will  be  large*  for 
it  deserves  it."  —  Th^  Standard,  Syracuse. 

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domestic  pictures." — Advattce,  Chicago. 

•  .  .  "No  one  who  reads  ftithfuUy  to  the  end,  can  help  being  won  by  the 
easy  naturalness  with  which  the  story  is  told."  —  Commercial  Bulletin,  Boston. 

.  .  '.  "This  story  is  one  of  the  truest  pictures  of  home  life,  as  it  should  be, 
that  we  have  ever  read."  —  Christian  Era,  Boston. 

.  .  .  '*  Of  our  modem  writers  of  fiction  we  know  of  none  whose  purpose  is 
purer,  or  whose  books  can  be  more  confidently  submitted  to  young  girls,  tlian  Miss 
Douglas's."  —  Boston  Journal. 

...  "Very  fresh  and  pleasant  reading,  with  touches  of  gc»tle  satire  and 
quiet  humor."  —  Christian  Intelligencer,  N.  Y. 


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14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

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on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

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iJan'6?CT? 


Ri-^ 


OiGBlm^ 


^SlBW 


APR  2  3  1969  3  8 


<^n^'fiiPW 


I 


RECEIV'^D 


IN  STACKS 


Ar.^  i  3  Ow  -i^  M 


SEP  2  2  1961 


LOAN  DEPT. 


nB<y 


O^^ 


0962 


2\JuV63^S 


LD  21A-50m-4,'60 
(A9562sl0)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


